– Results indicate a significant, positive earnings benefit of STEM major choice for nearly all groups. The only exception is men in the first quartile of ACT scores, for whom there is no significant treatment effect. The effect of STEM major choice on current earnings across all quartiles of ACT scores is about 22% for women and 18% for men.
– The effect of STEM major choice is more pronounced with initial earnings. Overall, the earnings benefit of STEM major choice is about 23% for women and 19% for men. As before, the only insignificant treatment effect is the effect for men in the first quartile of achievement.
– High-achieving men who do not to attend graduate school earn larger earnings boosts to STEM major choice, compared to those who attend graduate school.
2014 - How Do Academic Achievement and Gender Affect the Earnings of STEM Majors? A Propensity Score Matching Approach
Data from the ACT Alumni Outcomes Survey were collected from 93,229 college alumni, with 64 % females and 36 % males responding. These data are cross-sectional and cover years between 1991 and 2006. Approximately 300 colleges and universities in 42 states across the United States are represented. After omitting observations with missing ACT scores, the remaining sample consists of 7,779 women and 3,607 men.
Key variables include two earnings variables (annual earning’s of the respondent’s first job out of college and those of their current job at the time of the survey), an indicator variable describing the respondent’s first major (with STEM majors including fields in the hard sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.), technical fields (computer programming, medical technology, etc.), health fields nursing, dentistry, occupational therapy, etc.), engineering (chemical engineering, civil engineering, etc.) and mathematics (mathematics, statistics, etc.). The sample also measures the vocational interest of each respondent through the use of the unisex edition of ACT’s Interest Inventory (UNIACT).