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ResearchPaper
2015

Are sociocultural factors important for studying a science university major?

Abstract (English)

This paper examines the role of the sociocultural background of students for choosing STEM fields in university. We combine rich survey data on university graduates in Switzerland with municipality level information from the census as well as nationwide elections and referenda to characterize a students home environment with respect to religious and political attitudes towards gender equality and science-related issues. Our empirical estimates are based on a structural Roy model which accounts for differences in costs (relative distance to the next technical university) and earnings across majors as well as for selection bias. Our findings suggest that male students from conservative municipalities are more likely to study a STEM field, whereas the sociocultural background plays little role for the major choice of females.

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Publication series

Hohenheim discussion papers in business, economics and social sciences; 2015,12

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Faculty
Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Institute
Institute of Economics

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Language
English

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Classification (DDC)
300 Social sciences, sociology, and anthropology

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BibTeX

@techreport{Grossmann2015, url = {https://hohpublica.uni-hohenheim.de/handle/123456789/5964}, author = {Grossmann, Volker and Osikominu, Aderonke and Osterfeld, Marius et al.}, title = {Are sociocultural factors important for studying a science university major?}, year = {2015}, school = {Universität Hohenheim}, series = {Hohenheim discussion papers in business, economics and social sciences}, }