HOW WILL PARENTS AFFECT COLLEGE MAJOR CHOICES OF THEIR KIDS: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

Using the CFPS records in 2016, I analyzed the determinants of students' college major choices in China. With the multinomial logistic regression model, I found that students from slightly more educated families in China tend to major in law and medicine. Moreover, compared to female students, male students tend to major in engineering more often. Family income will influence an individual's major choice by influencing wage expectations. Students from wealthier families tend to face a looser budget constraint and will be more willing to trade pecuniary tastes for non-pecuniary tastes. The conclusions are consistent after we utilized Lee's methods to correct for the potential selection bias problem in the realizations of wages.