Abstract

This project explores the extent to which career guidance affects students' career expectations and short- to medium-term labor market success. Specifically, we aim to address how the provision of official information about occupational characteristics, such as wages and required high school diploma, contributes to students changing their career expectations. Further, we will use these changes in expectations to predict changes in actual behavior. This includes, among other things, which high school diploma they graduate from, which companies/occupations they sort themselves into, or how often they change their chosen career path.
To realize this project, we need the administratively-linked data from Start Cohort 4 of the National Education Panel. In addition, with detailed information from the ASU, we need a flawless identification of career counseling that (1) occurred while students were in school and (2) was voluntary. These data should then be enriched with microcensus data to determine the goodness of earnings expectations. Other occupation-level characteristics, such as wage growth or employment changes, can be calculated using the SIAB.
These data allow us to answer the relevant questions of the project. First, there is the question of who uses career guidance and whether it generally affects a change in expectations. If career counseling has an impact on expectations, does it also have an impact on students' actual labor market careers? Do students who have received counseling sort themselves into different careers and firms than students who have not? And if so, can we say that students go to economically better occupations and firms?
Thus, this research project answers important questions in labor market research, especially research on independent acquisition and use of labor market information. The focus is on the autonomy of information acquisition as opposed to the information treatment often used in the literature, which presents students with preconceived information. The research findings could be used to provide more efficient career guidance to minimize costly student misinformation.