IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/31835.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Tale of Two Fields? STEM Career Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Xuan Jiang
  • Joseph Staudt
  • Bruce A. Weinberg

Abstract

Is the labor market for US researchers experiencing the best or worst of times? This paper analyzes the market for recently minted Ph.D. recipients using supply-and-demand logic and data linking graduate students to their dissertations and W2 tax records. We also construct a new dissertation-industry “relevance” measure, comparing dissertation and patent text and linking patents to assignee firms and industries. We find large disparities across research fields in placement (faculty, postdoc, and industry positions), earnings, and the use of specialized human capital. Thus, it appears to simultaneously be a good time for some fields and a bad time for others.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuan Jiang & Joseph Staudt & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2023. "A Tale of Two Fields? STEM Career Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 31835, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31835
    Note: ED LS PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w31835.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deborah Wagner & Mary Lane, 2014. "The Person Identification Validation System (PVS): Applying the Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications’ (CARRA) Record Linkage Software," CARRA Working Papers 2014-01, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Carter Braxton & Kyle F. Herkenhoff & Jonathan Rothbaum & Lawrence Schmidt, 2021. "Changing Income Risk across the US Skill Distribution: Evidence from a Generalized Kalman Filter," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 55, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    2. Colmer, Jonathan & Lin, Dajun & Liu, Siying & Shimshack, Jay, 2021. "Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Bruce D. Meyer & Derek Wu & Victoria R. Mooers & Carla Medalia, 2019. "The use and misuse of income data and extreme poverty in the United States," AEI Economics Working Papers 1018925, American Enterprise Institute.
    4. Robert Collinson & John Eric Humphries & Nicholas Mader & Davin Reed & Daniel Tannenbaum & Winnie van Dijk, 2024. "Eviction and Poverty in American Cities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(1), pages 57-120.
    5. Illenin Kondo & Kevin Rinz & Natalie Gubbay & Brandon Hawkins & John Voorheis & Abigail Wozniak, 2024. "Granular Income Inequality and Mobility Using IDDA: Exploring Patterns across Race and Ethnicity," NBER Chapters, in: Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Statistics for the 21st Century, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Ufuk Akcigit & Nathan Goldschlag, 2022. "Measuring the Characteristics and Employment Dynamics of U.S. Inventors," Working Papers 22-43, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Nicholas Jones & Eric Jensen & Karen Battle & Rachel Marks, 2024. "Measuring the Racial and Ethnic Composition and Diversity of the United States Population: Historical Challenges and Contemporary Opportunities," NBER Chapters, in: Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Statistics for the 21st Century, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Kevin Rinz, 2022. "Did Timing Matter? Life Cycle Differences in Effects of Exposure to the Great Recession," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(3), pages 703-735.
    9. Richard Blundell & Christopher R. Bollinger & Charles Hokayem & James P. Ziliak, 2024. "Interpreting Cohort Profiles of Lifecycle Earnings Volatility," Working Papers 24-21, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    10. Kevin L. McKinney & John M. Abowd, 2024. "Estimating the Potential Impact of Combined Race and Ethnicity Reporting on Long-Term Earnings Statistics," NBER Chapters, in: Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Statistics for the 21st Century, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Matthew Cefalu & John Sullivan & Narayan Sastry & Elizabeth Fussell & Todd Gardner, 2024. "Gradient Boosting to Address Statistical Problems Arising from Non-Linkage of Census Bureau Datasets," Working Papers 24-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    12. Jonathan M. Colmer & John L. Voorheis, 2024. "Microdata and the Valuation of Natural Capital," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Perspective, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Mary Layne & Deborah Wagner & Cynthia Rothhaas, 2014. "Estimating Record Linkage False Match Rate for the Person Identification Validation System," CARRA Working Papers 2014-02, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    14. Colmer, Jonathan & Voorheis, John, 2020. "The grandkids aren't alright: the intergenerational effects of prenatal pollution exposure," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108495, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Catherine Buffington & Benjamin Cerf & Christina Jones & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2016. "STEM Training and Early Career Outcomes of Female and Male Graduate Students: Evidence from UMETRICS Data Linked to the 2010 Census," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 333-338, May.
    16. Sarah Miller & Norman Johnson & Laura R Wherry, 2021. "Medicaid and Mortality: New Evidence From Linked Survey and Administrative Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(3), pages 1783-1829.
    17. Javier Miranda & Nikolas Zolas, 2017. "Measuring the Impact of Household Innovation Using Administrative Data," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century, pages 61-102, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Meyer, Bruce D. & Mittag, Nikolas, 2019. "An Empirical Total Survey Error Decomposition Using Data Combination," IZA Discussion Papers 12151, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Meyer, Bruce D. & Mittag, Nikolas, 2021. "An empirical total survey error decomposition using data combination," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 224(2), pages 286-305.
    20. John Voorheis & Jonathan Colmer & Kendall Houghton & Eva Lyubich & Mary Munro & Cameron Scalera & Jennifer Withrow, 2023. "Building the Prototype Census Environmental Impacts Frame," Working Papers 23-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:31835. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.