Skills, Occupational Choice, and Educational Attainment
Abstract: Miriam Gensowski proposes a model of educational choice in which the formation of wage expectations accounts for anticipated occupational choices as well as education levels. Occupations are characterized as bundles of tasks that are explicitly linked to multi-dimensional abilities and personality traits. These traits are measured in Project Talent data that I augment with information from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. The importance of skills is contrasted with the influence of parental background in this mutually dependent decision.