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Moving beyond the STEM/non-STEM dichotomy: wage benefits to increasing the STEM-intensities of college coursework and occupational requirements

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  • Audrey Light
  • Apoorva Rama

Abstract

Using a sample of college graduates from the NLSY97, we introduce a new approach to assessing wage benefits of STEM training, STEM jobs, and the match between the two: rather than classify individuals dichotomously as STEM or non-STEM, we measure the STEM-intensities of both their college coursework and their occupational requirements. While the orthodox approach simply predicts that ‘STEM pays,’ we find that workers at the top of both gender-specific STEM-intensity distributions are predicted to out-earn their counterparts at the bottom by a substantial margin – even when we condition on their dichotomous STEM classification – but that predicted log-wages do not increase monotonically with STEM-intensity throughout the entire joint distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Audrey Light & Apoorva Rama, 2019. "Moving beyond the STEM/non-STEM dichotomy: wage benefits to increasing the STEM-intensities of college coursework and occupational requirements," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 358-382, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:27:y:2019:i:4:p:358-382
    DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2019.1616078
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    Cited by:

    1. Zając, Tomasz & Magda, Iga & Bożykowski, M. & Chłoń-Domińczak, Agnieszka & Jasiński, M., 2023. "Gender Pay Gaps across STEM Fields of Study," IZA Discussion Papers 16613, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Speer, Jamin D., 2023. "Bye bye Ms. American Sci: Women and the leaky STEM pipeline," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Jiang, Xuan, 2021. "Women in STEM: Ability, preference, and value," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

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