University courses not only determine what you’ll earn, but who you’ll end up marrying, if at all
You’ve got to choose carefully what you study at university because the subject determines what you go on to earn. Men taking creative arts degrees on average earn less than if they hadn’t done the course, while those studying economics see an average lifetime benefit of £500,000.
But the choice of course affects much more important things, like whether you get married and who to. A paper examining the experiences of German graduates investigated the impact of studying courses that are more popular with your own sex. It also disproves worries that economists have no romantic side with sentences such as: “Imbalanced sex ratios typically favor the scarcer gender because of reduced partner search costs and increased bargaining power.”