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Higher education and unemployment in Europe: an analysis of the academic subject and national effects

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Abstract

This paper examines the impact of an academic degree and field of study on short and longterm unemployment across Europe (EU15). Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on over half a million individuals are utilised for that purpose. The harmonized LFS classification of level of education and field of study overcomes past problems of comparability across Europe. The study analyses (1) the effect of an academic degree at a European level, (2) the specific effect of 14 academic subjects and (3) country specific effects. The results indicate that an academic degree is more effective on reducing the likelihood of short-term than long-term unemployment. This general pattern even though it is observed for most of the academic subjects its levels show significant variation across disciplines and countries.

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Notes

  1. For a full description of the LFS data see European Commission (2007).

  2. That is EU15, including the member countries in the European Union prior to the accession of ten candidate countries on 1st May 2004.

  3. We exclude general programmes from the analysis as the category is rare for graduates (0.7%) and the contents included rather ambiguous.

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Acknowledgments

Imanol Nuñez acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under the project SEC2007-67737-C03-02/ECON.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Economía, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Imanol Núñez

  2. Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Ilias Livanos

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  1. Imanol Núñez
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  2. Ilias Livanos
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Correspondence to Ilias Livanos.

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Núñez, I., Livanos, I. Higher education and unemployment in Europe: an analysis of the academic subject and national effects. High Educ 59, 475–487 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-009-9260-7

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