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A revealed preference analysis of PhD students’ choices over employment outcomes

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  • Conti, Annamaria
  • Visentin, Fabiana

Abstract

We develop a revealed preference approach to elicit science and engineering PhDs’ preferences over employment outcomes, exploiting cohort size variations. Depending on whether pecuniary and non-pecuniary rewards are sticky or not, increments in the PhDs’ cohort size decrease either the availability of their ideal employment categories or the related compensations. In both cases, the PhDs’ preferred employment categories are revealed to be the ones that are relatively less chosen when the PhDs’ cohort is large and relatively more so when it is small. Examining two major European universities, we find that PhDs equally value employment in highly-ranked universities and R&D-intensive companies. Moreover, these employment categories are preferred to low-ranked universities, non-R&D-intensive firms, and public administration. There is preference heterogeneity across PhDs depending on their research field.

Suggested Citation

  • Conti, Annamaria & Visentin, Fabiana, 2015. "A revealed preference analysis of PhD students’ choices over employment outcomes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1931-1947.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:44:y:2015:i:10:p:1931-1947
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2015.06.009
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    10. Jeongeun Kim & Molly Ott & Lindsey Dippold, 2020. "University and Department Influences on Scientists’ Occupational Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(2), pages 197-228, March.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Revealed preferences; Employment choices; PhD students; Cohort size effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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