IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cpp/issued/v25y1999i1p101-121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is It Worth Doing a Science or Technology Degree in Canada? Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications

Author

Listed:
  • Marie Lavoie
  • Ross Finnie

Abstract

This paper looks at the early careers of science and technology graduates in Canada using three waves of the National Graduates Surveys. Employment rates, earnings levels, job satisfaction, the job-education skill match, and the overall evaluation of the education program are studied in order to evaluate the attractiveness of careers in science and technology and the degree to which these graduates' skills and talents are being efficiently utilized. We find that computer science and health graduates have generally done very well; that engineers have performed in a solid, although not spectacular, fashion; and that pure and especially applied science graduates have lagged behind, especially at the undergraduate level. The implications of these findings for the accumulation of the science and technology knowledge bases in Canada in the context of the emerging "knowledge-based economy" are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Marie Lavoie & Ross Finnie, 1999. "Is It Worth Doing a Science or Technology Degree in Canada? Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 25(1), pages 101-121, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:25:y:1999:i:1:p:101-121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0317-0861%28199903%2925%3A1%3C101%3AIIWDAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H
    Download Restriction: only available to JSTOR subscribers
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Gunderson, Morley & Krashinsky, Harry, 2009. "Do Education Decisions Respond to Returns by Field of Study?," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-62, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 28 Nov 2009.
    2. Paul M. Anglin & Ronald Meng, 2000. "Evidence on Grades and Grade Inflation at Ontario's Universities," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 26(3), pages 361-368, September.
    3. Monica Boyd & Siyue Tian, 2018. "Is STEM Education Portable? Country of Education and the Economic Integration of STEM Immigrants," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 965-1003, November.
    4. Finnie, Ross & Frenette, Marc, 2003. "Earning differences by major field of study: evidence from three cohorts of recent Canadian graduates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 179-192, April.
    5. Finnie, Ross, 2002. "Early Labour Market Outcomes of Recent Canadian University Graduates by Discipline: A Longitudinal, Cross-cohort Analysis," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2002164e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    6. Ross Finnie & Alex Usher, 2007. "Room at the Top: Strategies for Increasing the Number of Graduate Students in Canada," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 245, February.
    7. Lavoie, Marie & Roy, Richard & Therrien, Pierre, 2003. "A growing trend toward knowledge work in Canada," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 827-844, May.

    More about this item

    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:cpp:issued:v:25:y:1999:i:1:p:101-121. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Iver Chong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/cpp .

    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.