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College-Major Choice to College-then-Major Choice: Experimental Evidence from Chinese College Admissions Reforms

One of the most important mechanism design policies in college admissions is to let students choose a college major sequentially (college-then-major choice) or jointly (college-major choice). In the context of the Chinese meta-major reforms that transition from college-major choice to college-then-major choice, we provide the first experimental evidence on the information frictions and heterogeneous preferences that students have in their response to the meta-major option. In a randomized experiment with a nationwide sample of 11,424 high school graduates, we find that providing information on the benefits of a meta-major significantly increased students’ willingness to choose the meta major; however, information about specific majors and assignment mechanisms did not affect student major choice preferences. We also find that information provision mostly affected the preferences of students who were from disadvantaged backgrounds, lacked accurate information, did not have clear major preferences, or were risk loving.

Keywords
college major choice; behavioral economics; information friction; randomized experiment
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/3hs4-4z35
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Ma, Liping, Xin Li, Qiong Zhu, and Xiaoyang Ye. (). College-Major Choice to College-then-Major Choice: Experimental Evidence from Chinese College Admissions Reforms. (EdWorkingPaper: -694). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/3hs4-4z35

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