| Abstract: |
The choice of college major is one of the most important decisions students
make. In this paper we study the impact of ability on college major
choice,using a data set for full-time students enrolled in four-year business
and economics programs offered by the Faculty of Economics, University of
Ljubljana. We distinguish between general and major-specific ability, which
measure different dimensions of cognitive ability. We show that both measures
are important in explaining individual decisions and that misleading results
can follow from observing only commonly employed general ability. We also find
important gender differences as males are more likely to base their major
choice on the ability to complete coursework, while females are more likely to
decide according to unobserved preferences. |