updated version published as 'Science education and labor market outcomes in a developing economy' in: Economic Inquiry, 2022, 60 (2), 741 - 763
This paper explores the association between studying science at the higher secondary stage and labor market earnings using nationally representative data on high school subject choices and adult outcomes for urban males in India. Results show that those who studied science in high school have 22% greater earnings than those who studied business and humanities, even after controlling for several measures of ability. These higher earnings among science students are further enhanced if the students also have some fluency in English. Moreover, greater earnings are observed among individuals with social and parental support for translating science skills into higher earnings. Science education is also associated with more years of education, likelihood of completing a professional degree, and among low ability students, working in public sector positions.
We use cookies to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site as well as cookies that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, for comfort settings or to display personalized content. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, you may not be able to use all of the site's functions.
Cookie settings
These necessary cookies are required to activate the core functionality of the website. An opt-out from these technologies is not available.
In order to further improve our offer and our website, we collect anonymous data for statistics and analyses. With the help of these cookies we can, for example, determine the number of visitors and the effect of certain pages on our website and optimize our content.