Human Capital Investments and Expectations about Career and Family
通过调查高能力在校大学生，研究他们如何认为人力资本投资（如专业选择和是否完成学位）会影响未来收入、就业、婚姻、配偶特征和生育，并发现这些预期与实际结果紧密相关，且能解释人力资本选择。
This paper studies how individuals believe human capital investments will affect their future career and family life. We conducted a survey of high-ability currently enrolled college students and elicited beliefs about how their choice of college major, and whether to complete their degree at all, would affect a wide array of future events, including future earnings, employment, marriage prospects, potential spousal characteristics, and fertility. We find that students perceive large 'returns" to human capital not only in their own future earnings, but also in a number of other dimensions (such as future labor supply and potential spouse's earnings). In a recent follow-up survey conducted six years after the initial data collection, we find a close connection between the expectations and current realizations. Finally, we show that both the career and family expectations help explain human capital choices.