IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iso/educat/0208.html

Reaching for gold! The impact of a positive reputation shock on career choice

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Goller
  • Stefan C. Wolter

Abstract

We analyze the causal influence a positive reputation shock for a particular occupation may have on career choice. The measure of the positive reputation shock is the unpredictable event that a young adult from one's own country wins a (gold) medal in a particular occupation at the World Skills - the world championship of vocational skills. In an occupation with a gold medal won, searches for apprenticeship vacancies increase significantly by around 7 percent compared to occupations that do not win a competition. In occupations where only a silver or bronze medal is awarded, the effect is also positive and statistically significant, but less pronounced. More importantly, the increase in searches for apprenticeship vacancies in the current year has also led to around 2.5 percent more contracts being signed in the winning occupation, and there are indications that these apprenticeships have a better match between employers and employees (trainees).

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Goller & Stefan C. Wolter, 2023. "Reaching for gold! The impact of a positive reputation shock on career choice," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0208, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    • Handle: RePEc:iso:educat:0208
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.business.uzh.ch/RePEc/iso/leadinghouse/0208_lhwpaper.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Goller & Stefan C. Wolter, 2021. "“Too shocked to search” The COVID-19 shutdowns’ impact on the search for apprenticeships," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 157(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    3. Eggenberger, Christian & Janssen, Simon & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2022. "The value of specific skills under shock: High risks and high returns," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Serena Canaan & Pierre Mouganie, 2023. "The Impact of Advisor Gender on Female Students’ STEM Enrollment and Persistence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(2), pages 593-632.
    5. Seth Gershenson & Cassandra M. D. Hart & Joshua Hyman & Constance A. Lindsay & Nicholas W. Papageorge, 2022. "The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 300-342, November.
    6. Goller, Daniel & Gschwendt, Christian & Wolter, Stefan C., 2025. "This time it’s different – Generative artificial intelligence and occupational choice," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    7. Donald E. Gibson, 2003. "Developing the Professional Self-Concept: Role Model Construals in Early, Middle, and Late Career Stages," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(5), pages 591-610, October.
    8. B. Frick & P. Wicker, 2016. "The trickle-down effect: how elite sporting success affects amateur participation in German football," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 259-263, March.
    9. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    10. Cattaneo, Maria A. & Wolter, Stefan C., 2022. "“Against all odds” Does awareness of the risk of failure matter for educational choices?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Giorgio Di Pietro, 2018. "Do media play a role in promoting vocational education and training? The case of MasterChef," Policy Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 37-53, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Goller & Chiara Graf & Stefan C. Wolter, 2024. "The virtues of going virtual," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0224, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    2. Goller, Daniel & Gschwendt, Christian & Wolter, Stefan C., 2025. "This time it’s different – Generative artificial intelligence and occupational choice," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Andreas F. Buehler & Patrick Lehnert & Harald Pfeifer, 2026. "Natural Disasters and the Green Occupational Aspirations of Adolescents," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0254, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    4. Stefan C. Wolter & Thea S. Zöllner, 2025. "Are parents an obstacle to gender-atypical occupational choices?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 1-19, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rana, Pushpendra & Sills, Erin O., 2024. "Inviting oversight: Effects of forest certification on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    2. Martin Huber, 2019. "An introduction to flexible methods for policy evaluation," Papers 1910.00641, arXiv.org.
    3. Harleman, Max, 2024. "Who bears the cost of renewable power transmission lines? Evidence from housing values," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    4. Michael C. Knaus & Henri Pfleiderer, 2026. "Causal Graphs for Conditional Parallel Trends," Papers 2604.12818, arXiv.org.
    5. Wang, Lisha & Pan, Minjie & Qian, Xinlei & Lv, Kangjuan, 2025. "Do specialized courts matter? Environmental judiciary and corporate emissions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    6. Yuli Liu & Min Xu & Yu Huang & Ningning Fu, 2025. "Has the “Belt and Road Initiative” Promoted Chinese OFDI in Green Energy? Evidence from Chinese Energy Engagement in BRI Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-24, October.
    7. Hjalmarsson, Linn & Kaiser, Boris & Bischof, Tamara, 2023. "The impact of physician exits in primary care: A study of practice handovers," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. Jaraitė, Jūratė & Kurtyka, Oliwia & Ollivier, Hélène, 2022. "Take a ride on the (not so) green side: How do CDM projects affect Indian manufacturing firms’ environmental performance?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    9. Roesch, Marcus & Gerritse, Michiel & Karreman, Bas & van Oort, Frank & Loog, Bart, 2025. "Do workers or firms drive the foreign acquisition wage gap?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    10. Simon Hartmann & Rok Spruk, 2023. "The impact of unilateral BIT terminations on FDI: Quasi-experimental evidence from India," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 259-296, April.
    11. Karca D. Aral & Erasmo Giambona & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 2023. "Managerial flexibility, capacity investment, and inventory levels," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(12), pages 3890-3907, December.
    12. Agarwal, Natasha & Chan, Jackie M.L. & Lodefalk, Magnus & Tang, Aili & Tano, Sofia & Wang, Zheng, 2023. "Mitigating information frictions in trade: Evidence from export credit guarantees," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    13. Li, Daiyue & Jin, Yanhong & Cheng, Mingwang, 2024. "Unleashing the power of industrial robotics on firm productivity: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 500-520.
    14. Bhattacharjee, Arnab & Aravena, Claudia & Castillo, Natalia & Ehrlich, Marco & Taou, Nadia & Wagner, Thomas, 2022. "Agroforestry Programs in the Colombian Amazon: Selection, Treatment and Exposure Effects on Deforestation," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 537, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    15. Shimada, Go, 2024. "Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant impact on regional economies from 1960 to 2010," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    16. Liu, Xiuyan & Zhang, Fan & Wang, Qiao, 2025. "More than a new campus: University's spatial expansion, emerging knowledge cluster, and innovation growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    17. Goeyvaerts, Geert, 2023. "Reconstructing cities: Stimulating redevelopment through the tax code," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Zhang, Jian & Wang, Ningzhi & Wu, Wenruo & Zhu, Xinyu, 2025. "Tax information and corporate environmental investment," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    19. Souhei Ishida & Makoto Kuroki & Akinobu Shuto, 2026. "Abstract," CARF F-Series CARF-F-622, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    20. Marcus Roller, Daniel Steinberg, 2023. "Differences-in-Differences with multiple Treatments under Control," Diskussionsschriften credresearchpaper41, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft - CRED.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iso:educat:0208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sara Brunner (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isuzhch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.