More or less the same? An exploration of the evolution of the PhD wage premium in a decade of higher education expansion

Analysis package: More or less the same? An exploration of the evolution of the PhD wage premium in a decade of higher education expansion. 

Euler, Thorsten; Trennt, Fabian

The expansion in higher education over the last decade or more has led to an increase in the number of tertiary education graduates entering the labor market, both with and without doctoral degrees. Against this backdrop we ask to what extent higher educat... moreion expansion has affected the earnings of PhD graduates in comparison to higher education graduates without doctoral degrees. The analysis is based on the 1997, 2001, 2005, and 2009 cohorts of the German Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (DZHW) graduate panel studies. Within these, surveys were conducted for each respective cohort about ten years after graduation. The provided analysis package contains the associated preparation of the data sets, the genesis of necessary variables, the tailoring of the analysis sample and the calculation of the results. In accordance with human capital theory, a constant PhD wage premium between the different cohorts for those employed in the private sector can be found. In the public sector, a stable but insignificant PhD wage premium is detected. Descriptive and analytic results show a significant wage growth for the 2009 cohort, regardless of sector and PhD state. less