Who does (and does not) take introductory economics?

Figures & data

Figure 1. Course taking across samples.

Figure 2. First year course taking across samples.

Figure 3. Demographic differences across samples.

Table 1. Share of students who take economics, by sample.

	2008 B&B			2004 BPS			2012 BPS
Panel A: Economics Courses Among All Students
	One-and-done	No economics	Some economics	One-and-done	No economics	Some economics	One-and-done	No economics	Some economics
	0.20*	0.60*	0.20*	0.17	0.62	0.21	0.12*	0.74*	0.14*
St. dev.	(0.40)	(0.49)	(0.40)	(0.37)	(0.49)	(0.41)	(0.32)	(0.44)	(0.36)
N^a	13,500			13,390			10,910
Panel B: Economics Courses Among Some Economics Students Only
	Two courses	Three courses	Four + courses	Two courses	Three courses	Four + courses	Two courses	Three courses	Four + courses
	0.54*	0.21*	0.25	0.51	0.23	0.25	0.59*	0.19*	0.22*
St. dev.	(0.50)	(0.40)	(0.40)	(0.50)	(0.01)	(0.43)	(0.49)	(0.39)	(0.42)
N^a	2,700			2,810			1,520

Source: Author’s calculations using the 2008 Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B), 2004 and 2012 Beginning Postsecondary Survey (BPS).

Notes: Cells in Panel A report the share of students in each sample that took one economics course (one-and-done), no economics courses, or more than one economics course (some economics). Cells in Panel B report the share of some economics students in each sample that took two, three, or four or more economics courses. Standard deviations are reported in parentheses. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences from the 2004 BPS sample at the 0.05 level or smaller.

^aBecause of the restricted nature of the data, nondisclosure policies require reporting sample sizes rounded to the nearest 10.

Figure 4. Course taking across cohorts.

Figure 5. First year course taking across cohorts.

Figure 6. Demographic differences across cohorts.

Figure 7. When students take economics.

Figure 8. Where students take economics.

Table 2. Economics enrollment, by institution type.

	One-and-done	No Economics	Some Economics	N^a	One-and-done	No Economics	Some Economics	N^a
Doctorate	0.21	0.50	0.29	1,550	0.19*	0.53*	0.27	1,480
	(0.41)	(0.50)	(0.45)		(0.39)	(0.50)	(0.45)
Master’s	0.17	0.56	0.27	1,380	0.17	0.64*	0.20*	1,580
	(0.37)	(0.50)	(0.45)		(0.37)	(0.48)	(0.40)
Baccalaureate	0.16	0.62	0.21	560	0.11*	0.74*	0.15*	590
	(0.37)	(0.49)	(0.41)		(0.31)	(0.44)	(0.36)
Liberal arts	0.21	0.58	0.21	440	0.19	0.61	0.20	330
	(0.41)	(0.49)	(0.41)		(0.40)	(0.49)	(0.40)
Associates	0.17	0.62	0.21	6,500	0.09*	0.78*	0.12*	5,420
	(0.37)	(0.49)	(0.41)		(0.29)	(0.41)	(0.33)
Other	0.13	0.73	0.14	2,970	0.06*	0.89*	0.05*	1,500
	(0.34)	(0.44)	(0.34)		(0.23)	(0.31)	(0.22)

Source: Author’s calculations using the 2004 and 2012 BPS.

Notes: Cells report the proportion of students in each institutional category who took one economics course, no economics courses, and more than one economics course. Standard deviations are reported in parentheses. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences across BPS samples at the 0.05 level or smaller.

^aBecause of the restricted nature of the data, nondisclosure policies require reporting sample sizes rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 3. Course credit via alternate routes.

	Economics		Math		History		English		Psychology		Comp. Sci.		Biology		Foreign Language
	2004	2012	2004	2012	2004	2012	2004	2012	2004	2012	2004	2012	2004	2012	2004	2012
AP credit	0.01	0.03*	0.04	0.04*	0.04	0.07*	0.04	0.05	0.04	0.03*	0.00	0.00	0.02	0.03	0.03	0.04
	(0.12)	(0.16)	(0.19)	(0.20)	(0.20)	(0.26)	(0.19)	(0.22)	(0.12)	(0.17)	(0.06)	(0.06)	(0.15)	(0.16)	(0.18)	(0.19)
Transfer credit	0.13	0.20*	0.16	0.20*	0.16	0.22*	0.20	0.22*	0.15	0.22*	0.11	0.16*	0.16	0.21*	0.13	0.18*
	(0.33)	(0.40)	(0.37)	(0.40)	(0.37)	(0.41)	(0.40)	(0.42)	(0.36)	(0.41)	(0.32)	(0.37)	(0.36)	(0.41)	(0.34)	(0.38)
Dual enrollment	0.00	0.03*	0.00	0.04*	0.00	0.03*	0.00	0.05*	0.00	0.03*	0.00	0.03*	0.00	0.02*	0.00	0.03*
	(0.03)	(0.18)	(0.02)	(0.19)	(0.03)	(0.16)	(0.02)	(0.21)	(0.03)	(0.16)	(0.02)	(0.18)	(0.01)	(0.13)	(0.03)	(0.18)
Other (CLEP, IB)	0.00	0.01*	0.02	0.02	0.00	0.02*	0.02	0.02	0.00	0.01*	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.04	0.05*
	(0.05)	(0.08)	(0.12)	(0.12)	(0.09)	(0.12)	(0.13)	(0.14)	(0.06)	(0.10)	(0.08)	(0.08)	(0.08)	(0.08)	(0.19)	(0.22)
N^a	5,160	3,550	12,270	10,680	8,210	6,620	9,940	9,170	9,020	7,680	7,040	5,570	7,910	6,570	5,640	4,430

Source: Author’s calculations from the 2004 and 2012 Beginning Postsecondary Surveys.

Notes: Cells report the proportion of students (among all students with credit for the subject) who earned course credit via alternate routes. Standard deviations are reported in parentheses. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences across cohorts at the 0.05 level or smaller.

^aBecause of the restricted nature of the data, nondisclosure policies require reporting sample sizes rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 4. Economics enrollment, by sociodemographic characteristics.

	2004 BPS			2012 BPS
	One-and-done	No Economics	Some Economics	One-and-done	No Economics	Some Economics
Age	20.16^	21.99	19.97^	19.27*^	20.76*	19.15^
	(5.61)	(7.74)	(5.21)	(4.11)	(6.17)	(3.94)
Male	0.50^	0.39	0.60^	0.46*^	0.37*	0.56^
	(0.50)	(0.49)	(0.49)	(0.50)	(0.48)	(0.50)
ACT^a	23.10^	21.52	23.21^	22.93^	21.11	23.09^
	(4.90)	(5.06)	(4.84)	(5.21)	(5.00)	(5.19)
SAT Math^a	537.69^	494.45	544.67^	530.75^	490.25	540.06^
	(107.89)	(111.99)	(105.73)	(111.90)	(105.97)	(111.20)
SAT Verbal^a	532.36^	505.73	529.64^	525.76^	493.96	525.78^
	(105.11)	(112.54)	(104.37)	(108.74)	(109.52)	(108.54)
White	0.75^	0.66	0.74^	0.61*^	0.55*	0.63
	(0.43)	(0.47)	(0.44)	(0.49)	(0.50)	(0.48)
Black	0.11^	0.16	0.13	0.11^	0.15*	0.09^
	(0.32)	(0.37)	(0.34)	(0.31)	(0.36)	(0.29)
Asian	0.07^	0.04	0.08^	0.08^	0.04	0.09^
	(0.26)	(0.20)	(0.28)	(0.27)	(0.19)	(0.29)
Hispanic	0.11^	0.17	0.12^	0.15*	0.20	0.14^
	(0.32)	(0.37)	(0.33)	(0.37)	(0.40)	(0.35)
Other race	0.06	0.06	0.06	0.04	0.06	0.05
	(0.24)	(0.23)	(0.24)	(0.20)	(0.23)	(0.21)
N^b	2,270	8,300	2,830	1,270	8,020	1,620

Source: Author’s calculations using the 2004 and 2012 BPS surveys.

Notes: Cells report variable means for each subsample. Standard deviations are reported in parentheses. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences across BPS samples at the 0.05 level or smaller. Carets indicate statistically significant differences within samples for one-and-done and some economics students relative to no economics students.

^aThe number of observations for ACT, SAT Math, and SAT Verbal are slightly smaller than the total because of missing scores for some students.

^bBecause of the restricted nature of the data, nondisclosure policies require reporting sample sizes rounded to the nearest 10.

Table 5. Economics enrollment, by major.

	2004 BPS; Percent of Major			2012 BPS; Percent of Major
Major	One-and-done	No Economics	Some Economics	One-and-done	No Economics	Some Economics
Humanities	0.16	0.69	0.15	0.10*	0.84	0.07
	(0.36)	(0.46)	(0.36)	(0.30)	(0.37)	(0.25)
Social Sciences	0.19	0.58	0.24	0.15	0.69*	0.16
	(0.39)	(0.49)	(0.42)	(0.36)	(0.46)	(0.39)
Life Sciences	0.23	0.60	0.17	0.14*	0.73*	0.13
	(0.42)	(0.49)	(0.37)	(0.35)	(0.44)	(0.33)
Physical Sciences & Math	0.21	0.52	0.27	0.16	0.67	0.17
	(0.41)	(0.50)	(0.45)	(0.37)	(0.47)	(0.38)
Computer Science	0.23	0.56	0.21	0.15*	0.73*	0.12
	(0.42)	(0.50)	(0.41)	(0.35)	(0.44)	(0.33)
Engineering	0.30	0.44	0.26	0.21*	0.62*	0.17
	(0.46)	(0.50)	(0.44)	(0.41)	(0.49)	(0.38)
Education	0.16	0.70	0.15	0.10	0.81*	0.10*
	(0.37)	(0.46)	(0.36)	(0.30)	(0.39)	(0.26)
Business	0.15	0.33	0.52	0.13*	0.41*	0.46
	(0.35)	(0.47)	(0.50)	(0.33)	(0.49)	(0.50)
Health	0.13	0.77	0.11	0.07	0.88	0.05*
	(0.33)	(0.42)	(0.31)	(0.26)	(0.33)	(0.22)
Voc./Tech.	0.16	0.67	0.17	0.08*	0.86*	0.07
	(0.37)	(0.47)	(0.38)	(0.26)	(0.35)	(0.25)
Other Professional	0.17	0.70	0.13	0.18*	0.71*	0.11*
	(0.37)	(0.46)	(0.34)	(0.38)	(0.45)	(0.32)
Other	0.17	0.61	0.22	0.14	0.67*	0.19*
	(0.37)	(0.49)	(0.42)	(0.35)	(0.47)	(0.39)

Source: Author’s calculations using the 2004 and 2012 BPS surveys.

Notes: Cells report variable means for each major. Economics is included among the social sciences majors. Standard deviations are reported in parentheses. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences across BPS samples at the 0.05 level or smaller.

Figure 9. Disciplines’ shares of majors 2000–2020 by sex.

Figure 10. Disciplines’ shares of majors 2000–2020 by race.