Essays in economics of education
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation focuses on how choices of students are affected by information by using experimental and empirical methods. Students are different from other decision makers since they mostly do not bear the costs of education directly and that the rewards of education are far in the future. However, the decisions they make are quite important both for themselves and for society. In the first paper, I explore how students' study decisions are affected by information about returns to effort. To answer this question, I design a field experiment where students enroll in an online platform to learn Spanish. I find that change in beliefs affects study effort, but that the direction of the response depends on one's locus of control, the extent to which individuals feel control over their outcomes. In the second paper, I explore how students' major choices are affected by information about returns to different majors. Using one of the biggest negative shocks to labor market outcomes in U.S. history, I look at whether the Great Recession affected field of study choices of students. I find that after the recession, there is a decrease in (the percentage of) degrees awarded in recession-sensitive majors and an increase in (the percentage of) degrees awarded in recession-resistant majors in areas with severe unemployment shocks. The third paper, co-authored with Sandro Ambuehl, B. Douglas Bernheim, and Donna Harris, explores how students' investments choices are affected by information from their peers in a laboratory setting. We find that communicating with a peer improves the quality of financial decision making. More interestingly, we find that this type of communication is most beneficial when it is between students who have similar knowledge levels.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Ersoy, Fulya Yuksel |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Bernheim, B. Douglas |
| Degree supervisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Thesis advisor | Bernheim, B. Douglas |
| Thesis advisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Thesis advisor | Chetty, Rajendra |
| Thesis advisor | Dupas, Pascaline |
| Degree committee member | Chetty, Rajendra |
| Degree committee member | Dupas, Pascaline |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Economics. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Fulya Yuksel Ersoy. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Economics. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Fulya Yuksel Ersoy
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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