Information Inequality in College Major Choices

Last registered on September 18, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Inequality in College Major Choices
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009519
Initial registration date
May 31, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
June 06, 2022, 5:21 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
September 18, 2024, 11:59 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Stanford University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-06-10
End date
2026-08-01
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The project studies how information frictions in centralized college application systems restrain low-SES students from making well-informed major choices and hinder their upward mobility. Using administrative data from China, I find that students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to apply to and enroll in majors that they have been exposed to during high school education despite the lower labor market returns. I conduct an online survey experiment to examine whether the disparity in major choices is driven by differential access to information between high- and low-SES students and whether information treatment can help close the gap.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Qiu, Xinyao. 2024. "Information Inequality in College Major Choices." AEA RCT Registry. September 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9519-1.1
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2022-06-10
Intervention End Date
2022-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Students' subjective beliefs on whether a major is a good fit for them and the self-perceived accuracy of their own beliefs.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
I randomized the students into two groups: one control group and one treatment group. Each student answers questions about several provided majors. These questions measure their beliefs about the majors' characteristics and whether the majors fit their interests and abilities, as well as the students' confidence in the accuracy of these beliefs.

Students in the treatment group are informed about how the provided majors relate to high school subjects with which they are already familiar. Students in the control group do not receive such informational treatments
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is done by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
One high school.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Roughly 800 high school students.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Half of the students in the control group; half of the students in the treatment group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number