Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major

We investigate the wage return to studying economics by leveraging a policy that prevented students with low introductory grades from declaring major. Students who barely met grade point average threshold major in earned $22,000 (46 percent) higher annual early-career wages than they would have their second-choice majors. Access shifts students' preferences toward business/finance careers, and about half of is explained majors working higher-paying industries. The causal majoring very similar observational earnings differences nationally representative data. (JEL A22, I26, J24, J31)