Labor Market Effects of Field of Study in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This article seeks to provide one of the first systematic comparative analyses of labor market consequences associated with fields of study. Using data of 22 countries from the European Labor Force Surveys (2004 and 2005), we analyze how field of study affects unemployment and occupational status for university-educated graduates. Our core hypothesis is that relative differences between fields should increase with educational expansion at the university level. Results of multilevel two-step regressions generally confirm our expectations. The more students graduate from universities, the greater the differences in labor market chances of university graduates from different fields.

Wage Inequality and Structural Change

“…Racial gaps tend to be remarkably stable in the US (Heywood and Parent 2012;Kreisman and Rangel 2015) and other countries (Longhi et al 2012;Lang et al 2012). College premium have first exhibited a stark increase (Grogger and Eide 1995;Dinardo et al 1996), but in many countries it was followed by a substantial decline (Walker and Zhu 2008;Acemoglu and Autor 2011) with increasing dispersion of returns to higher education (Reimer et al 2008;Green and Zhu 2010). Overall, in advanced economies, changes in the wage distribution do not follow one single pattern, with multiple processes interacting (Checchi et al 2016).…”

The association between graduates’ field of study and occupational attainment in West Germany, 1980–2008

“…In order to minimize the risk of drop out, the growing proportion of less able Abitur-holders may select into less academically challenging fields like humanities, social sciences or arts and, consequently, lower the average ability level of students in these fields. In contrast, due to the more demanding curriculum the ability levels of students in STEM fields may be less affected or remain rather unaffected during educational expansion (Reimer et al 2008;Clark 1978). Accordingly, US students in STEM fields have been found to have higher math and verbal abilities than students from humanities, social sciences and business (Arcidiacono 2004).…”

“…When higher education degrees become increasingly more unreliable during higher education expansion, employers are supposed to increasingly use graduates' field of study as selection criterion (Hansen;Jackson et al 2005; Van de Werfhorst 2002). Reimer et al (2008) suggest that amidst educational expansion increasingly untalented students would gain access to higher education and opt for the less academically challenging fields like humanities or social sciences, rather than STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. As a consequence, the signalling value of less demanding fields in the labour market would decline.…”

Helping the Marginalised or Supporting the Elite? Affirmative Action as a Tool for Increasing Access to Higher Education for Ethnic Roma

“…First, there is a generally accepted conclusion in the specialised literature that graduates of 'soft fields', such as humanities, social sciences, and arts, are exposed to higher risks related to the labour market than graduates of 'hard fields', such as engineering and medicine. Compared to the graduates of 'hard fields', those graduating 'soft fields' take longer to find a first 'significant job' (Klein, 2010), are more often unemployed (Reimer et al, 2008), have generally lower income (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2007;Reimer & Steinmetz, 2009), and are more often overeducated (Ortiz & Kucel, 2008;Klein, 2010) or in job positions mismatching their academic training (Robst, 2007;Klein, 2010).…”