STEM Graduates and Secondary School Curriculum : Does Early Exposure to Science Matter?

This paper focuses on students at the very top of the ability distribution and explores whether strengthening high school science curricula affects their choice of enrolling in and completing a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) degree at university. The paper solves the standard endogeneity problems by exploiting the different timing in the implementation of a reform that encouraged secondary schools in the UK to offer more science to high ability 14 year-olds. Taking five more hours per week of science in secondary school increases the probability of enrolling in a STEM degree by 1.2 percentage points and the probability of graduating in these degrees by 3 percentage points. The results mask substantial gender heterogeneity: while girls are as willing as boys to take advanced science in secondary school - when offered - the results on pure STEM degrees at university are entirely driven by boys. Girls are encouraged to choose more challenging subjects, but still opt for the most female-dominated ones