IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/33550.html

Geography or economics? A micro-level analysis of the determinants of degree choice in the context of regional economic disparities in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Wales, Philip

Abstract

The importance of human capital to the economic performance of a national, regional or local economy is now well established. Labour markets are thought to reward individuals in proportion to their marginal productivity and to encourage an efficient allocation of skilled workers. However, labour markets also provide signals to students about the return to a particular level or type of skill, which in turn affects the future supply of skilled workers. This paper explores how labour market conditions affect one aspect of this supply: through an impact on the subject an individual chooses to study for their undergraduate degree. Using a large micro-level dataset on graduates from British universities between 2004/5 and 2006/7, this paper implements a series of linear probability models in subject choice and makes several contributions to the existing literature. Firstly, it uses a more detailed classification of subjects than has hitherto been employed. Second, it examines the impact of local economic conditions on the student‟s subject choice. Thirdly, the time dimension of the dataset is used to implement fixed effects to control for several forms of endogeneity. The results suggest that personal and academic characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity and prior academic attainment, strongly affect degree choice and suggest that individuals endogenously select into particular areas and schools. It finds that local labour market signals do encourage individuals to take up particular degrees in preference to others, and raises several policy issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Wales, Philip, 2010. "Geography or economics? A micro-level analysis of the determinants of degree choice in the context of regional economic disparities in the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33550, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:33550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/33550/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glaeser, Edward L & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1126-1152, December.
      • Edward L. Glaeser & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1991. "Growth in Cities," NBER Working Papers 3787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Kallal, Hedi D. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Shleifer, Andrei, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Scholarly Articles 3451309, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    2. Massimiliano BRATTI & Luca MANCINI, 2003. "Differences in Early Occupational Earnings of UK Male Graduates by Degree Subject: Evidence from the 1980-1993 USR," Working Papers 189, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    3. Smith, Jeremy & Naylor, Robin, 2005. "Schooling effects on subsequent university performance: evidence for the UK university population," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 549-562, October.
    4. Gibbons, Stephen & Vignoles, Anna, 2009. "Access, choice and participation in higher education," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 23656, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Massimiliano Bratti, 2005. "Social Class and Undergraduate Degree Subject in the UK," UNIMI - Research Papers in Economics, Business, and Statistics unimi-1015, Universitá degli Studi di Milano.
    6. Rice, Patricia, 2000. "Participation in further education and training: how much do gender and race matter?," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 19, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    7. Silles, Mary A., 2009. "The causal effect of education on health: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 122-128, February.
    8. Blundell, Richard, et al, 2000. "The Returns to Higher Education in Britain: Evidence from a British Cohort," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(461), pages 82-99, February.
    9. McVicar, Duncan & Rice, Patricia, 2000. "Participation in further education in England and Wales: an analysis of post-war trends," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0014, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    10. Rice, Patricia, 2000. "Participation in further education and training: how much do gender and race matter?," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0019, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    11. Jacqueline C. Simpson, 2001. "Segregated by Subject," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(1), pages 63-100, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philip Wales, 2011. "Geography or Economics? A micro-level analysis of the determinants of degree choice in the context of regional economic disparities in the UK," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1046, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Rice, P., 2002. "The great divide: regional differences in education and training," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0201, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    3. Cormac O'Dea & Ian Preston, 2012. "The distributional impact of public spending in the UK," IFS Working Papers W12/06, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Yelena Kalyuzhnova & Uma Kambhampati, 2007. "Education or employment-choices facing young people in Kazakhstan," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 607-626.
    5. Paolo Buonanno & Dario Pozzoli, 2009. "Early Labour Market Returns to College Subject," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(4), pages 559-588, December.
    6. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 11210, IZA Network @ LISER.
    7. Agarwalla, Astha, 2011. "Agglomeration Economies and Productivity Growth in India," IIMA Working Papers WP2011-01-08, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    8. George A. Erickcek & Hannah McKinney, 2004. "Small Cities Blues: Looking for Growth Factors in Small and Medium-Sized Cities," Upjohn Working Papers 04-100, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    9. Giuseppe Di Liddo, 2015. "Urban sprawl and regional growth: empirical evidence from Italian Regions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(4), pages 2141-2160.
    10. Yang, Yong, 2012. "Agglomeration density and tourism development in China: An empirical research based on dynamic panel data model," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1347-1359.
    11. Conlon, Gavan, 2001. "The incidence and outcomes associated with the late attainment of qualifications in the United Kingdom," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19540, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Tschopp, Jeanne, 2015. "The Wage Response to Shocks: The Role of Inter-Occupational Labour Adjustment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 28-37.
    13. Michael Stuetzer & David B. Audretsch & Martin Obschonka & Samuel D. Gosling & Peter J. Rentfrow & Jeff Potter, 2018. "Entrepreneurship culture, knowledge spillovers and the growth of regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(5), pages 608-618, May.
    14. Teresa Garcia-Milà & Therese J. McGuire, 2001. "Tax incentives and the city," Economics Working Papers 631, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Dec 2001.
    15. Dorine Cornet & Jean Bonnet & Sébastien Bourdin, 2023. "Digital entrepreneurship indicator (DEI): an analysis of the case of the greater Paris metropolitan area," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 71(3), pages 697-724, December.
    16. Krenz, Astrid, 2016. "Agglomeration of knowledge in the German regional economy," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 277, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    17. Sangita Kamdar, 2021. "Million Plus Population Cities of India: An Analysis of Economic Performance and Quality of Life," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 295-306, August.
    18. Giulia Faggio & Olmo Silva & William C Strange, 2020. "Tales of the city: what do agglomeration cases tell us about agglomeration in general? [The anchor tenant hypothesis: exploring the role of large, local, R&D-intensive firms in regional innovation systems]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(5), pages 1117-1143.
    19. Pedro Albarran Pérez & Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe Kortajarene, 2017. "Schooling and adult health: Can education overcome bad early-life conditions?," Working Papers. Serie AD 2017-09, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    20. Philip Cooke, 2009. "The Economic Geography Of Knowledge Flow Hierarchies Among Internationally Networked Medical Bioclusters: A Scientometric Analysis," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 100(3), pages 332-347, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:33550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.