Intergenerational and Sibling Spillovers in High School Majors

Gordon Dahl, Dan-Olof Rooth and Anders Stenberg

No 27618, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper estimates family spillovers in high school major choice in Sweden, where admission to oversubscribed majors is determined based on GPA. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find large sibling and intergenerational spillovers that depend on the gender mix of a dyad. Same-gender siblings copy one another, while younger brothers recoil from older sister’s choices. Fathers and mothers influence sons, but not their daughters, except when a mother majors in the male-dominated program of Engineering. Back of the envelope calculations reveal these within family spillovers have sizable implications for the gender composition of majors.

JEL-codes: I21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-lma and nep-ure
Note: CH ED LS PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published as Gordon B. Dahl & Dan-Olof Rooth & Anders Stenberg, 2024. "Intergenerational and Sibling Spillovers in High School Majors," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol 16(3), pages 133-173.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w27618.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Intergenerational and Sibling Spillovers in High School Majors (2024)
Working Paper: Intergenerational and Sibling Spillovers in High School Majors (2023)
Working Paper: Intergenerational and Sibling Spillovers in High School Majors (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27618

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w27618

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().