The share of women achieving tertiary education has increased rapidly over time and now exceeds that of men in most OECD countries. However, women are severely under-represented in maths-intensive science fields, which are generally referred to as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths). The under-representation of women in these…

The decision to pursue formal education has significant labor market implications. To approach the decision rationally, a student must consider the costs and benefits of each available option. However, mounting empirical evidence suggests that reported expectations of costs and benefits are uncertain and vary across students. Hastings et al.…

Human capital theory holds that a higher education will be pursued to the extent that its pecuniary rewards outstrip its costs. This notion is founded on the neoclassical economic assumption that expected earnings conditional on educational investment are accurately anticipated by those considering such investments. However, the evidence in…

Background/Context: Explanations for the relatively low numbers of Latinas pursuing higher education have tended to focus on socialization into traditional gender roles. However, recent scholarship has challenged this view, suggesting that gender roles--particularly among recent immigrants--are mutable and subject to constant renegotiation.…

The neo-classical "human capital theory" continues to be invoked as part of the rationale for educational expansion in the developing world. While the theory provides a route from educational inputs to economic outputs in terms of increased incomes and standards of living, the route is contingent and relies upon a number of key…

The growing use of part-time, non-tenure track faculty in higher education has become a nationwide phenomenon. The college-teaching part-time instructor is one who is working for low pay, has little job security, and has few benefits. College part-time instructors' employment is in a contingent state. They do not have the job protection provided…

A large proportion of the gender wage gap is usually left unexplained. In this paper, we investigate whether the unexplained component is due to misspecification. Using a sample of recent UK graduates, we introduce variables on career expectations and character traits, variables that are typically not observed. The evidence indicates that women…

Responses from 227 of 389 female and 161 of 333 male college business seniors found that, although expecting similar starting salaries, women anticipate considerably lower earnings in subsequent years. The difference was not explained by the number of years women planned to be in the labor force. (SK)

Women's expectations of high rates of return to investment in higher education, particularly in nontraditional fields and in those requiring advanced degrees, are shown to be consistent with high levels of investment in these fields. Increasing workforce participation and decreasing fertility also contribute toward reducing the female-male…

We report the results of an experiment designed to elicit students' subjective beliefs about the economic returns to college education. An important feature of our experimental design is the inclusion of financial incentives for accurate reporting. We also consider the extent to which individuals' beliefs about their own returns differ from their…

Results of a 1980 survey of Minnesota women college faculty are compared with two earlier studies, revealing that women are not making the professional strides in academe they once expected, not becoming an increasingly important part of higher education, and not achieving equity with men faculty. (MSE)