The Determinants of Delayed Entrance into the Academic Career : The Case of France

The recruitment of young PhD graduates in the academic sector is linked to a strong uncertainty on their potential teaching and research productivity. When giving tenureto a PhD graduate, employers -universities or research institutions in France- attempt to reduce the asymmetric information on the research abilities of the applicant. However, because of the nature of the scientific work and the way it is rewarded, it is difficult to assessthe absolute value of much of the work of PhD graduates in the short term. So, in order to recruit the best PhD graduates for permanent jobs, public employers select from the signals sent by the applicant in their curriculum vitae. Our paper analyses the factors affecting theaccess duration to a permanent job in the French academic sector. We focus on a sample of 1400 individuals who obtained their PhDs in 2001 and were interviewed in 2004. A discrete time model is used to analyse the main factors influencing the access duration. In order to assess the effect of a post-doctoral position on the academic job search, our empirical approach involves estimation of models that simultaneously explain the access duration to a permanent job and post-doc participation. Our main results indicate that the scientific publications and the sources of financial supports obtained during the PhD have an influenceon the access duration to a permanent job, which is coherent with the idea that potentials employers use this information as a proxy of research and teaching abilities. In addition, our results provide consistent support for the hypothesis that a post-doc position may be useful to move up in the job queue for permanent positions in France.