In light of growing difficulties for schools to attract teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and the continued discussions surrounding the unionization of education, this paper examines the effect of collective bargaining (CB) laws on the salary of teachers with a STEM degree. To isolate the effect of…

Business schools frequently utilize AACSB's Salary Survey ("Staff Compensation and Demographic Survey," or the "SCDS Report") to benchmark salaries being offered by other schools. While providing averages based on a national sample, the "SCDS Report" obscures differences that might exist in salary averages between…

This dissertation studies the labor market outcomes of college graduates. The choice of college major is one of the most direct ways for college graduates to acquire skills and earnings differences between college majors rival those between high school and college graduates. In each chapter, I combine rigorous descriptive analysis methods with…

This dissertation studies the effect of higher education costs on students' outcomes in the labor market, particularly when credit constraints are absent. It utilizes the UK's institutional setting to identify such an effect. The key findings are as follows. (i) Increasing tuition fees does not have adverse effects on students as long as credit…

Evidence on gender inequality in the labor market is extensive. However, little is known about the potential role of overeducation and horizontal mismatch in explaining women's labor-market disadvantages. We draw on recent data from the Eurograduate pilot survey to investigate the role of overeducation, field-of-study mismatch and field-specific…

What is the impact of the minimum wage on the college wage premium? I show that job-ladder models imply that the effect should be small on impact--raising only the wages of workers bound by the minimum wage--and grow over time as workers slowly move up the job ladder. Guided by my theory, I present evidence that these dynamic effects are present…

Purpose: The job satisfaction of university graduates can serve as an indicator of success in their professional development. At the same time, it can be a measure of higher education systems' effectiveness. The purpose is to assess the relationship of university graduates' socio-demographic characteristics, aspects of their degree program,…

This paper studies the main determinants of salaries for economics students in their year-long industrial placements. Using three different sources of data on three cohorts of economics placement students, including demographic characteristics, academic performance, programme of studies and employability-related characteristics, we find that…

Research on higher education institution (HEI) employees neglects an essential group--non-instructional staff. Literature on HEI workers and their salaries focuses primarily on faculty and administrators. Furthermore, the literature that does focus on staff salaries neglects variation within this group as well as the role of institutional and…

One method for evaluating higher education performance is to conceptualize it as a production function represented as an input/output process. This paper proposes a performance evaluation of higher education institutions from the perspective of recent graduates taking as inputs students' cognitive abilities and tuition, and as outputs three we…

International student mobility (ISM) is often perceived to enhance career prospects. Surprisingly, the role of personality traits in explaining why students go abroad and relationships between ISM and labour market outcomes have received scant scholarly attention. Based on survey data from Norwegian graduates, we found that degree and credit…

Using multivariate linear regression models, this study estimates the relationship between graduates' self-reported skill improvements from attending a virtual university, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), and their salaries after obtaining the degree. Our results show that graduates made considerable earnings gains and especially high rates…

For nearly three decades, researchers have been concerned that the educational measurement field is not producing enough graduate-level specialists to meet the growing demand driven by the increased use of educational assessments in the United States. This study examined the supply-side aspect of the proposed labor shortage by relying on data from…

This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter one explores the causal relationship between adverse health conditions and research-related activities/career outcomes by assessing the dynamic impacts of functional limitations for the U.S. trained doctoral recipient population. Using the restricted Survey of Earned Doctorates and Survey of…

We study whether the completion of an optional professional year placement during undergraduate studies enhances job quality, in terms of earnings, job security and career fit, for economics graduates from a UK university. Using linear and discrete choice models, we estimate the effect of doing a professional year placement on four graduate…