PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Conlon, John J.
TI  - Major Malfunction
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.56.3.0317-8599R2
DP  - 2021 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 922--939
VI  - 56
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/56/3/922.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/56/3/922.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2021 Jul 01; 56
AB  - In a field experiment at a flagship state university in the United States, I test whether providing college students salary information can affect their choices of major and classes. I find that undergraduates are substantially misinformed about mean salaries by major. On average, students in my sample underestimate mean salaries, but there is also large heterogeneity in beliefs across individuals. I also find that providing information to correct these errors has a large impact on students’ choices; students in the treatment group were nine percentage points (16 percent) more likely to major in a field about which they received information.