Wage expectations and access to healthcare occupations: Evidence from an information experiment

Abstract

We investigate how correcting students’ wage expectations affects their performance on admission tests for medical and healthcare schools, a critical step for aspiring healthcare professionals. Using a randomized information experiment with Italian applicants, we first elicited their expectations about the starting wage of the healthcare profession they intended to pursue. The treatment group was then informed of the actual starting wages, while the control group received no such information. Finally, we collected and analyzed their test scores. Our findings reveal that applicants with lower wage expectations tend to perform worse on the test. However, correcting these expectations eliminates the performance gap: providing accurate wage information enhances test scores for applicants who initially underestimated wages, while it negatively impacts those who overestimated them.