Success Stems from STEM Fields: An Analysis of Italian Graduates

The school-to-work transition in Italy is very long. In this paper, we measure the differences in the school-to-work duration for Italian graduates in the STEM and non-STEM fields using data from the ISTAT Professional integration of Graduates survey. We used different parametric and non-parametric approaches based on survival analysis. In particular, through competitive risk analysis, we control even the possibility that the job search ends with a transition to the status of inactivity, still very frequent among Italian people, especially women. Further, we compare STWT durations conditioned to several relevant characteristics. We find that the STWT has an average duration of 14 months for those who graduated in health sciences, 24 for other scientific fields, and more than two years for those graduating in a humanities field. Other significant differences arise when we account for gender, especially when we consider an exit from the STWT for inactivity, for region of residence, family background, and even for active participation in university activities. Further, the analysis highlights the existence of a dual labor market, with shorter transitions to stable and satisfactory jobs and longer transitions for jobs with opposite characteristics. The findings open up many policy implications. Actions that could help in reducing the duration of the STWT are: stimulating more young people, in particular women, to choose STEM disciplines; reducing the Italian territorial divide, reinforcing universities in the South and their connections with the productive system, incentivizing students to actively participate in courses, and other activities.