IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/12020.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Up or out: Research incentives and career prospects of postdocs in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Fitzenberger, Bernd
  • Leuschner, Ute

Abstract

Academic careers in Germany have been under debate for a while. We conduct a survey among postdocs in Germany, to analyze the perceptions and attitudes of postdocs regarding their research incentives, their working conditions, and their career prospects. We conceptualize the career prospects of a postdoc in a life-cycle perspective of transitions from academic training to academic or non-academic jobs. Only about half of the postdocs sees strong incentives for academic research, but there is quite a strong confidence to succeed in an academic career. Furthermore, postdocs who attended a PhD program show better career prospects and higher research incentives compared to others. Academic career prospects and motivation are strongest for assistant professors. Apart from this small group, however, postdocs report only a small impact of the university reforms of the last decade. Female postdocs show significantly higher research incentives but otherwise we find little gender differences. Finally, good prospects in non-academic jobs are not associated with a reduction in the motivation for research.

Suggested Citation

  • Fitzenberger, Bernd & Leuschner, Ute, 2012. "Up or out: Research incentives and career prospects of postdocs in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-020, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/56034/1/688731988.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jörg Heining & Jürgen Jerger & Jörg Lingens, 2008. "Deutsche Hochschulkarrieren im Fach Volkswirtschaftslehre. Eine deskriptive Analyse von Lebenslaufdaten," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(3), pages 306-328, August.
    2. Günther G. Schulze & Susanne Warning & Christian Wiermann, 2008. "What and How Long Does It Take to Get Tenure? The Case of Economics and Business Administration in Austria, Germany and Switzerland," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9, pages 473-505, November.
    3. Lindley, Joanne & Machin, Stephen, 2011. "Rising Wage Inequality and Postgraduate Education," IZA Discussion Papers 5981, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk, 2011. "Performance Pay and Multidimensional Sorting: Productivity, Preferences, and Gender," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(2), pages 556-590, April.
    5. Heining, Jörg & Jerger, Jürgen & Lingens, Jörg, 2007. "Success in the Academic Labour Market for Economics - The German Experience," University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems 422, University of Regensburg, Department of Economics.
    6. Schulze Günther G. & Wiermann Christian & Warning Susanne, 2008. "What and How Long Does It Take to Get Tenure? The Case of Economics and Business Administration in Austria, Germany and Switzerland," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 473-505, December.
    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. Lutter, Mark & Schröder, Martin, 2016. "Who becomes a tenured professor, and why? Panel data evidence from German sociology, 1980–2013," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 999-1013.
    2. Klaus Wohlrabe, 2018. "Selected Remarks on Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Economists’ Ranking 2018," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 71(20), pages 29-33, October.
    3. Hayter, Christopher S. & Parker, Marla A., 2019. "Factors that influence the transition of university postdocs to non-academic scientific careers: An exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 556-570.
    4. Mario Fernandes & Andreas Walter, 2023. "The times they are a-changin’: profiling newly tenured business economics professors in Germany over the past thirty years," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(5), pages 929-971, July.
    5. Alexander Butz & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2016. "Die Ökonomen-Rankings 2015 von Handelsblatt, FAZ und RePEc: Methodik, Ergebnisse, Kritik und Vergleich," ifo Working Paper Series 212, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    6. Justus Haucap & Tobias Thomas & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2017. "Publication Performance vs. Influence: On the Questionable Value of Quality Weighted Publication Rankings," CESifo Working Paper Series 6818, CESifo.
    7. Alessandro Muscio & Sotaro Shibayama & Laura Ramaciotti, 2022. "Universities and start-up creation by Ph.D. graduates: the role of scientific and social capital of academic laboratories," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 147-175, February.
    8. Doris Fischer, 2014. "The Impact of Changing Incentives in China on International Cooperation in Social Science Research on China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 43(2), pages 33-46.
    9. Jia Song & Zunwei Yang, 2023. "Striving Transition for University Academics: The Academic Role Identity of Young Postdocs at Universities in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, February.
    10. Alexander Butz & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2016. "Comments and Criticism of the 2015 Economists Rankings of Handelsblatt, the FAZ and RePEc," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 69(10), pages 37-44, May.
    11. Bäker, Agnes, 2015. "Non-tenured post-doctoral researchers’ job mobility and research output: An analysis of the role of research discipline, department size, and coauthors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 634-650.
    12. Lutter, Mark & Schröder, Martin, 2014. "Who becomes a tenured professor, and why? Panel data evidence from German sociology, 1980-2013," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/19, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    13. Nurith Epstein & Martin R Fischer, 2017. "Academic career intentions in the life sciences: Can research self-efficacy beliefs explain low numbers of aspiring physician and female scientists?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, September.
    14. Erina Ytsma, 2022. "Effort and Selection Effects of Performance Pay in Knowledge Creation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10153, CESifo.
    15. Aybars Oruc, 2021. "Requirements for Productivity in the Academic Environment," Higher Education Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(4), pages 1-40, November.
    16. Nurith Epstein & Daniel Lachmann, 2018. "Gender Inequity during the Ph.D.: Females in the Life Sciences Benefit Less from Their Integration into the Scientific Community," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Lutz Bornmann & Alexander Butz & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2017. "A Meta-Ranking of Economics Publications," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 70(16), pages 40-42, August.

    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. Andreas Haufler & Johannes Rincke, 2009. "Wer trägt bei der Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik vor? Eine empirische Analyse," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10(2), pages 123-145, May.
    2. Hottenrott, Hanna & Lawson, Cornelia, 2014. "Flying the nest: How the home department shapes researchers’ career paths," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201409, University of Turin.
    3. Bräuninger Michael & Haucap Justus & Muck Johannes, 2011. "Was lesen und schätzen deutschsprachige Ökonomen heute?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 12(4), pages 339-371, November.
    4. Püttmann, Vitus & Thomsen, Stephan L. & Trunzer, Johannes, 2020. "Zur Relevanz von Ausstattungsunterschieden für Forschungsleistungsvergleiche: Ein Diskussionsbeitrag für die Wirtschaftswissenschaften in Deutschland," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-679, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, revised Mar 2021.
    5. Krapf, Matthias & Ursprung, Heinrich W. & Zimmermann, Christian, 2017. "Parenthood and productivity of highly skilled labor: Evidence from the groves of academe," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 147-175.
    6. Günther G. Schulze & Susanne Warning, 2009. "Misleading Rankings of Research in Business: A Reply," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10, pages 368-371, August.
    7. Justus Haucap & Tobias Thomas & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2017. "Publication Performance vs. Influence: On the Questionable Value of Quality Weighted Publication Rankings," CESifo Working Paper Series 6818, CESifo.
    8. Haufler, Andreas & Rincke, Johannes, 2008. "Wer trägt bei der Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik vor?," Discussion Papers in Economics 8506, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    9. Alexander Butz & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2016. "Die Ökonomen-Rankings 2015 von Handelsblatt, FAZ und RePEc: Methodik, Ergebnisse, Kritik und Vergleich," ifo Working Paper Series 212, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    10. Potrafke Niklas, 2011. "Public Expenditures on Education and Cultural Affairs in the West German States: Does Government Ideology Influence the Budget Composition?," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 124-145, February.
    11. Fernandes, Mario & Hilber, Simon & Sturm, Jan-Egbert & Walter, Andreas, 2023. "Closing the gender gap in academia? Evidence from an affirmative action program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    12. Berlemann, Michael & Haucap, Justus, 2012. "Which factors drive the decision to boycott and opt out of research rankings? A note," DICE Discussion Papers 72, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    13. Ali Sina Önder & Sascha Schweitzer, 2017. "Catching up or falling behind? Promising changes and persistent patterns across cohorts of economics PhDs in German-speaking countries from 1991 to 2008," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1297-1331, March.
    14. Constantin Schoen & Katja Rost & David Seidl, 2018. "The influence of gender ratios on academic careers: Combining social networks with tokenism," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, November.
    15. Michael Berlemann & Justus Haucap, 2012. "Which Factors Drive the Decision to Boycott and Opt Out of Research Rankings?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3997, CESifo.
    16. Bräuninger, Michael & Haucap, Justus & Muck, Johannes, 2011. "Was lesen und schätzen Ökonomen im Jahr 2011?," DICE Ordnungspolitische Perspektiven 18, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    17. Klaus Wohlrabe, 2018. "Selected Remarks on Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Economists’ Ranking 2018," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 71(20), pages 29-33, October.
    18. Libman, A., 2010. "Economics in Germany – from National to Global," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 8, pages 155-158.
    19. Klaus Wohlrabe, 2020. "Some Remarks on the FAZ Economist Ranking 2020," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(11), pages 53-57, November.
    20. Julia Muschallik & Kerstin Pull, 2016. "Mentoring in higher education: does it enhance mentees’ research productivity?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 210-223, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Postdocs; Academic Career Prospects; Research Incentives; University Reforms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A29 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Other
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J49 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Other

    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:zbw:zewdip:12020. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.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.