People who majored in economics might earn more money than the average college major. But that does not necessarily mean that majoring in econ causes higher incomes. It could be that those with above average intelligence choose to major in economics and they would have made higher incomes no matter what subject they studied.
In economics we use the Latin phrase "ceteris paribus" (people who know Latin tell me you are supposed to pronounce the C like a K). It means "all other things being equal" or "holding all other factors constant." Ideally, we would have two identical groups of students, then randomly assign them to a major. If the econ majors made more than, say, the sociology majors, we could say that studying econ led to the higher incomes.
A study used the ceteris paribus idea (almost). The authors looked at students who just barely qualified to major in economics."
"Abstract
We investigate the wage return to studying economics by leveraging a policy that prevented students with low introductory grades from declaring a major. Students who barely met the grade point average threshold to major in economics earned $22,000 (46 percent) higher annual early-career wages than they would have with their second-choice majors. Access to the economics major shifts students’ preferences toward business/finance careers, and about half of the wage return is explained by economics majors working in higher-paying industries. The causal return to majoring in economics is very similar to observational earnings differences in nationally representative data."
See also 33 of the Highest-Paying Majors You Can Choose in College (2022).
Relate posts:
Studying Economics Increases Wages a Lot (2020)
What College Majors Pay The Highest? (2013)
50 College Majors With the Best Return on Investment (2015)
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