Lin Tian from INSEAD will present "Field of Study, Career Choice, and Globalization".

Abstract: We study how students' field of study affects the labor market consequences of trade shocks. We develop a dynamic general equilibrium framework that incorporates both a labor market where workers differ in their field of study, and an education technology that allows for students to choose their fields in anticipation of future  demand. Leveraging uniquely rich Danish administrative data, and features of the Danish university application system, we develop a methodology to jointly estimate students' field preferences, together with key labor market parameters. Our method allows for latent heterogeneity in workers' skills and student preferences. We find students heavily cluster into several preference types over fields of study---e.g., STEM---and find heterogeneity in how elastic students' choices are to labor market shocks.