Human Capital Investments and Expectations about Career and Family / Matthew Wiswall, Basit Zafar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wiswall, Matthew.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Zafar, Basit.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w22543.

NBER working paper series no. w22543

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

This paper studies how individuals "believe" human capital investments will affect their future career and family life. We conducted a survey of high-ability currently enrolled college students and elicited beliefs about how their choice of college major, and whether to complete their degree at all, would affect a wide array of future events, including future earnings, employment, marriage prospects, potential spousal characteristics, and fertility. We find that students perceive large "returns" to human capital not only in their own future earnings, but also in a number of other dimensions (such as future labor supply and potential spouse's earnings). In a recent follow-up survey conducted six years after the initial data collection, we find a close connection between the expectations and current realizations. Finally, we show that both the career and family expectations help explain human capital choices.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2016.