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The Impact of Labor Demand on Time to the Doctorate

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  • Jeffrey A. Groen

    (EU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Washington, DC)

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to estimate the impact of labor demand on time to the doctorate. Empirical investigation of this relationship in previous research was hampered by the difficulty of measuring labor demand. I construct a measure of labor demand in seven fields in the humanities and social sciences based on the annual number of job listings from 1975 to 2005. My empirical strategy relates variation over time in the number of job listings within a field to the timing of completion using student-level data on all doctorates awarded in these fields by U.S. universities. Estimates indicate that the number of job listings is not correlated with expected time to degree. This finding implies that cyclical variation in labor demand is not responsible for changes in time to degree within fields.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey A. Groen, 2016. "The Impact of Labor Demand on Time to the Doctorate," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(1), pages 43-69, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:11:y:2016:i:1:p:43-69
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    References listed on IDEAS

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