Wage Expectations for Higher Education Students in Spain

Abstract

We assess students’ ability to forecast future earnings, by using data on expected wages self-reported by college students with different graduation horizons. We find a significant gender gap, by which wages expectations are systematically lower for women than for men. However, the gender gap in actual wages exceeds the gender gap in wage expectations, suggesting that women do not fully account for the gender gap in their future earnings. We also find that student performance and graduation horizon play a relevant in wage forecasts.

Keywords: Wage differentials, College choice, Ordered response

JEL Classification: I23, J24, J31, C24, C25