Abstract:
A large literature documents a gender gap in earnings. One area of this literature examines the role of gender differences in choice of field. More recent work argues that a large share of the earnings gap is due to women’s reduced earnings after they have a child. We bring these strands of the literature together by linking gender differences in choice of educational field to differences by field in both expected and realized earnings and fertility. We conduct a large-scale survey experiment among a national sample of college applicants in Denmark. In Denmark, college applicants submit their rank ordered choices of college degree programs to a national clearinghouse that matches students to programs using a strategy proof mechanism based on high school GPA. We survey students about their top-ranked choices after they have submitted their applications but before they learn the results. We elicit beliefs about their experience while studying as well as their labor market and family outcomes ten years after graduation. We then incorporate national administrative data on labor market and family outcomes by degree program from prior cohorts. We use the combined experimental and administrative data to address the following questions: (1) To what extent is there an earnings-fertility tradeoff in more heavily female fields (i.e., lower earnings and higher fertility)? (2) How much of the gender earnings gap is explained by gender differences in choice of degree; and how much by gender differences in the child penalty? And, (3) To what extent do applicants' expectations align with the realized outcomes of prior cohorts?

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