Identity economics and the disadvantage effect on graduate retention in cities: using regression to analyse the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and geography

Abstract

Graduate retention is key to the economic success of university cities, but non-migration often comes with costs to individuals in the form of forgoing the migration premium. There is increasing recognition that intersectionality – whereby people identify with more than one social category – means that (dis)advantage is a multidimensional concept. This paper explores the retention of 10,140 UK graduates from four universities in Greater Manchester for the 2017/18 year cohort. The main finding is compelling evidence for a disadvantage effect on the retention of local graduates, whereby markers of disadvantage predict retention when controlling for other variables and when considering the interaction of gender, ethnicity, and geography, an effect that is particularly strong for minority female graduates. Evidence is also presented for an advantage effect on the retention of non-locals, which is particularly strong for white graduates. This paper makes a theoretical contribution by using identity economics to explain that graduates who embody multidimensional markers of disadvantage may opt-out of the financially beneficial behaviour of migration based on identity-based utility. The method used for modelling intersectionality in this paper may prove useful to other researchers interested in analysing graduate retention patterns elsewhere in the world. These findings challenge the notion that graduate retention is an unalloyed good, suggesting that policymakers should consider that social (dis)advantage may be a main driver of retention figures in cities.