Abstract:
The study aims to examine if and how much labor market incentives affect the choices of degrees by candidates to a position of college student in the Federal University of Pernambuco. By using a unique database with information on a considerable set of characteristics of the candidates applying for the academic year of 2009 and parameter estimation of multiple choice econometric models (conditional logit and mixed logit), the investigation provides evidence that candidates' choices are positively affected by the level of earnings and by the participation of fields of study in total college employment, and negatively by the standard deviation of earnings.These results remain significant and even stronger after inclusion of a large set of personal, familiar and social environment control variables in the regressions.
Keywords:
Occupational choice; mixed logit; conditional logit; earnings