Ofer Malamud

Ofer Malamud
Assistant Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, The University of Chicago

This paper evaluates the impact of two alternative approaches to general
education on later unemployment. I construct a 16 year longitudinal
panel of university-bound students from English high schools between
1974 and 1989 using administrative data from university rosters.
Exploiting the variation in curriculum breadth and course offerings in
"General Studies" across cohorts within schools, I find that greater
curriculum breadth in high school is associated with a lower probability
of being unemployed after leaving university. I find no corresponding
effect of taking a course that is intended to provide general skills.
These findings suggest that studying a broader range of specific
subjects may help students insure against the risk of unemployment.