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Superstar Firms and College Major Choice

Darwin Choi et al.

Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics2025https://doi.org/10.1086/736929article
ABDC A
Weight
0.36

What the paper says

We study the relation between the presence of superstar firms and college students’ major choice. Occurrences of superstar performers in an industry are followed by a sharp rise in the number of college students choosing to major in related fields. This cohort effect remains significant after controlling for lagged industry returns and wages. Students’ tendency to follow superstars, however, is met with lower real wages earned by entry-level employees when these students enter the job market. Further evidence from two college-graduate surveys shows that such adverse career outcomes can last for decades.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/736929

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@article{darwin2025,
  title        = {{Superstar Firms and College Major Choice}},
  author       = {Darwin Choi et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/736929},
}

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Superstar Firms and College Major Choice

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Evidence weight

0.36

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.