Assortative preferences in choice of major

Average FSA by NFOR based on 41 major CIP codes (weighted)

NFORC	Father–son	Mother–son	Father–daughter	Mother–daughter
F = 1, M = 1	0.466	0.534	0.525	0.445
F = 1, M = 2	0.469	0.515	0.527	0.425
F = 2, M = 1	0.418	0.535	0.502	0.443
F = 2, M = 2	0.417	0.517	0.492	0.428

Distribution of fathers and mothers by NFOR and 12 prime CIP codes (% and weighted)

		Father			Mother
		NFOR		Major’s	NFOR		Major’s
Majors		1.0–0.8	0.8–0.0	share	1.0–0.8	0.8–0.0	share
Education	1	57.32	42.68	7.41	56.80	43.20	8.74
Arts	2	28.50	71.50	3.44	28.33	71.67	3.55
Humanities	3	11.03	88.97	4.86	10.05	89.95	5.16
Law	4	23.89	76.11	9.62	23.51	76.49	11.15
Business	5	16.34	83.66	20.02	14.98	85.02	22.94
Science	6	26.53	73.47	3.33	26.28	73.72	3.21
Math/Comp.	7	32.11	67.89	3.61	29.01	70.99	3.27
Engineering	8	42.99	57.01	26.26	42.10	57.90	16.79
Agriculture	9	25.39	74.61	2.93	23.51	76.49	2.55
Health	10	36.15	63.85	11.91	33.22	66.78	16.08
Services	11	36.91	63.09	6.61	34.58	65.42	6.58
	Total	32.15	67.85		29.62	70.38

Intergenerational transmission of field of study with 41 major CIP codes

	1				2
	FSA–Son		FSA–Daughter		FSA–Son		FSA–Son
	Father	Mother	Father	Mother	Father	Mother	Father	Mother
FSH = 1 (if same major)					0.055	0.002	0.025	0.015
					0.001	0.008	0.001	0.062
NFSHM	0.050		0.051
	0.006		0.005
NFSHF		0.100		0.038
		0.003		0.002
FORCF= 1					−0.044		−0.027
					0.002		0.001
FORCM= 1						−0.020		−0.016
						0.001		0.003
EDH	0.046	0.027	0.018	0.025	0.040	0.045	0.025	0.026
	0.003	0.002	0.01	0.007	0.001	0.003	0.001	0.002
Household income 0.009		0.002	0.006	0.001	0.007	−0.002	0.005	0.001
	0.001	0.009	0.001	0.002	0.001	0.009	0.001	0.004
Constant	0.347	0.529	0.464	0.434	0.390	0.615	0.464	0.434
	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Number of Obs.	23,748	23,748	22,254	22,254	21,101	20,016	20,195	19,159

Transmission of field of study by within-family specification with 41 major CIP codes

	(FSAM,S) − (FSAF,S)		(FSAM,D) − (FSAF,D)
	1	2	1	2
(NFSHF) – (NFSHM)	0.153		−0.014
	0.002		0.012
DFORC
1	Base		Base
2	−0.033		−0.027
	0.001		0.001
3	0.035		0.163
	0.001		0.068
NFSHM		−0.101		−0.005
		0.001		0.023
NFSHF		0.162		−0.021
		0.001		0.018
FORCM= 1		−0.016		−0.016
		0.001		0.071
FORCF= 1		0.051		0.029
		0.001		0.001
Constant	0.069	0.026	−0.076	−0.070
	0.001	0.002	0.001	0.001
Number of Obs.	21,018	21,018	19,942	19,942

Within-family specification for STEM parents with 41 major CIP codes

	(FSAMS) − (FSAFS)			(FSAMD) − (FSAFD)
	Coef.		Std. err.	Coef.		Std. err
NFSHM	−0.079		0.002	0.001		0.370
NFSHF	0.161		0.001	−0.020		0.019
STEM	−0.151		0.001	0.019		0.176
STEM × NFSHM	−0.042		0.101	−0.037		0.306
STEM × NFSHF	−0.037		0.098	−0.103		0.423
FORCM= 1	−0.017		0.001	−0.016		0.004
FORCF= 1	0.042		0.002	0.027		0.001
Constant	0.027		0.003	−0.073		0.003
Number of Obs.		21,018			19,942

Field-of-study homogamy (FSH) by prime CIP codes (weighted)

		Son’s major
Father’s major		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Education	1	0.94	0.80	1.00	0.81	0.80	0.74	0.74	0.00	0.70	0.88	0.63
Arts	2	0.32	1.00	0.37	0.35	0.31	0.36	0.32	0.00	0.21	0.35	0.38
Humanities	3	0.60	0.72	1.00	0.73	0.51	0.59	0.57	0.00	0.56	0.59	0.48
Law	4	0.65	0.72	0.87	1.00	0.77	0.68	0.66	0.00	0.60	0.68	0.53
Business	5	0.55	0.54	0.64	0.69	1.00	0.61	0.57	0.00	0.50	0.56	0.43
Science	6	0.64	0.63	0.67	0.73	0.60	1.00	0.69	0.00	0.51	0.63	0.35
Math/Comp.	7	0.64	0.76	0.88	0.63	0.73	0.98	1.00	0.00	0.52	0.64	0.54
Engineering	8	0.17	0.14	0.00	0.02	0.00	0.08	0.18	1.00	0.20	0.14	0.21
Agriculture	9	0.23	0.10	0.01	0.11	0.02	0.20	0.16	0.00	1.00	0.26	0.51
Health	10	0.69	0.66	0.76	0.75	0.63	1.00	0.57	0.00	0.57	0.84	0.59
Services	11	0.25	0.21	0.08	0.06	0.00	0.12	0.25	0.51	0.24	0.23	1.00
Mother’s major
Education	1	0.98	0.84	0.94	1.00	0.86	0.84	0.77	0.00	0.77	0.85	0.46
Arts	2	0.38	1.00	0.65	0.62	0.40	0.45	0.42	0.00	0.37	0.42	0.15
Humanities	3	0.62	0.71	1.00	0.78	0.70	0.74	0.67	0.00	0.57	0.58	0.46
Law	4	0.52	0.59	0.69	1.00	0.75	0.53	0.47	0.00	0.55	0.54	0.47
Business	5	0.21	0.14	0.06	0.00	0.37	0.17	0.29	1.00	0.25	0.16	0.38
Science	6	0.72	0.64	0.70	0.66	0.75	1.00	0.70	0.00	0.60	0.64	0.57
Math/Comp.	7	0.39	0.44	0.51	0.38	0.00	0.96	1.00	0.45	0.30	0.20	0.05
Engineering	8	0.14	0.19	0.10	0.09	0.00	0.27	0.23	1.00	0.17	0.33	0.25
Agriculture	9	0.39	0.43	0.27	0.40	0.00	0.42	0.32	0.69	1.00	0.34	0.42
Health	10	0.45	0.18	0.00	0.07	0.02	0.42	0.34	0.84	0.57	1.00	0.96
Services	11	0.21	0.27	0.06	0.00	0.02	0.21	0.26	1.00	0.28	0.22	0.60