Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between curriculum choice and occupational choice. The lag between curriculum choice and degree attainment generally ensures a mismatch between new labor supply and employer requirements, even if students are quite responsive to labor market conditions. The author hypothesizes that adjustment to that lag is primarily a function of market conditions and the technical compatibility of possible combinations of college majors and occupations. He tests his model with NSF data on two recent cohorts of male baccalaureate recipients, which are used to calculate the probability that a student in a given major obtains a first job in a related occupation. The author's model explains a large proportion of the differences in that probability across majors and occupations.
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