Collaborative Research: Skills, Majors, and Jobs: Does Higher Education Respond?

快速的技术进步导致了技能的过时，但教育机构和学生对劳动力市场的这些变化反应迟缓。这项研究项目将使用大量关于技能需求和按专业划分的大学招生人数变化以及专业内容的数据来调查两个相互关联的问题：(I)每个大学专业都有哪些技能，以及技能需求在时间和空间上是如何变化的？(2)高等教育课程设置和学生选修课程如何应对技能需求的变化？这项研究将基于一段时间内所有招聘信息的数据，以及某个州所有课程提供(及其内容)的数据。结果可以帮助机构通过迅速改变课程内容来应对技能需求，教育政策制定者可以更好地规划。调查结果不仅有助于指导学生选择专业，还有助于指导他们在所选专业中选择的课程和技能。通过为在快速变化的技术工作场所中协调技能需求和技能培训的政策提供投入，这项研究将帮助美国教育机构提供经济所需的技能，从而促进经济快速增长和改善美国人的福祉。该项目将使用来自燃烧玻璃项目和特拉华成本项目的合并数据，该项目拥有部门级的小组数据，包括学分、课程和教职员工，以及个人水平的数据，如学生选课、准实验方法和机器学习技术，以调查大学生和学院管理人员如何应对劳动技能需求的变化。具体地说，它调查了每个大学专业与哪些技能相关，专业内跨专业的技能需求在空间和时间上是如何不同的，以及技能投资如何应对劳动力市场技能需求的变化。以前的研究集中在技能获取的需求方面；然而，这个项目将通过探索使这些供应响应成为可能的几个方面来考察(由大学提供者和学生提供的)技能供应如何应对技能需求的变化。准实验方法允许对技能需求变化对人力资本投资的影响进行因果识别。该项目将探索较低级别、较高级别和研究生级别的不同反应。这项研究的结果将为政策提供指导，使技能投资与技能需求的变化保持一致，这样做将提供所需的技能，并带来更快的经济增长。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rapid technical progress leads to skill obsolescence, yet educational institutions and students are slow to respond to these changes in the labor market. This research project will use a large data set on changes in skill demand and college enrolments by major and the content of majors to investigate two interrelated questions: (i) what skills are associated with each college major and how does skill demand vary over time and space? (ii) how do higher education course-offerings and student course-taking respond to changes in demand for skills? The research will be based on data on all job postings over a time matched with data on all course offering (and their content) in a state. The results can help institutions respond to skill demand by rapidly changing the content of their curricula and educational policy makers plan better. The results will also help guide students not only in their choice of majors but also the courses and skills they choose to acquire in their chosen majors. By providing inputs into policies that align skill needs and skill training in a rapidly changing technological work place, this research will help US educational institutions provide the skills the economy needs, hence lead to rapid economic growth and improved well-being of Americans.This project will use merged data from the Burning Glass project and the Delaware Cost Project which has department level panel data on credits, courses and faculty as well as individual level data on student course taking, quasi-experimental methods and machine learning techniques to investigate how college students and college administration respond to changes in labor skill demand. Specifically, it investigates what skills are associated with each college major, how within major cross-major skills demand differ across space and through time, and how skill investment responds to changes in skill demand in the labor market. Previous studies have focused on the demand side of skill acquisition; this project will however look at how skill supply (by university providers and students) respond to changes in skill demand by exploring several aspects university curriculum that makes these supply responses possible. The quasi-experimental methods permit causal identification of the effect of changes in skill demand on human capital investment. The project will explore differential responses at lower-division, upper-division, and graduate levels. The results of this research will provide guidance on policies to align skill investment to changes in skill demand and in so doing will provide the needed skills and lead to faster economic growth.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.