Abstract
Education and research are considered as the cornerstones of the economic growth and the job creation for the Lisbon Strategy proposed by the European Union. Therefore, understanding the transmission channels of the educational investments to the society is important to inform policymakers and students about the benefits and opportunities associated with the acquisition of human capital. In this context, PhD programs play a significant role to reach the European research goals. The current study contributes to shed empirical evidence about the determinants of the time to the doctorate in Spain and its influence on the probability of carrying out an innovate activity (for example, working as a researcher), in both cases the PhD program’s academic field is included as regressors. One of the main hypothesis to verify is whether a prolonged time to complete the doctoral studies is a negative signal about the individual’s capacity to develop research skills. If this is the case, longer time to doctorate would imply less probability of working as a researcher. The methodology applied consists in estimating a Cox model to analyse the determinants of the time to the doctorate, and a probit model to examine the probability of being a researcher considering time to the doctorate as an endogenous regressor. Data used in this study come from the 2009 Survey on Human Resources in Science and Technology, provided by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE in 2009 survey on human resources in science and technology, INE, Madrid, 2010).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altonji, J. G., Blom, E., & Meghir, C. (2012). Heterogeneity in human capital investments: high school curriculum, college major, and careers. Annual Review of Economics, 4(September), 185–223.
Amemiya, T. (1978). The estimation of a simultaneous equation generalized probit model. Econometrica, 46(5), 1193–1205.
Auriol, L., Misu, M., & Freeman, R. A. (2013). Careers of doctorate holders: Analysis of labour market and mobility indicators. OECD science, technology and industry working papers, 2013/04. Paris: OECD.
Behrman, J., & Rosenzweig, M. (2002). Does increasing women’s schooling raise the schooling of the next generation? American Economic Review, 91(1), 323–334.
Bormann, L., & Enders, J. (2004). Social origin and gender of doctoral degree holders. Scientometrics, 61(1), 19–41.
Breslow, N. (1974). Covariance analysis of censured survival data. Biometrics, 30(1), 89–99.
Brooks, R., & Everett, G. (2008). The impact of higher education on lifelong learning. International Journal of Lifelong Learning, 27(3), 239–254.
Canal, J. F. (2013). Ingresos y satisfacción laboral de los trabajadores españoles con título de doctor. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 144(octubre), 49–72.
Canal, J. F., & Rodríguez, C. (2013). Wage differences among PhDs by area of knowledge: are science areas better paid than humanities and social ones? The Spanish case. Journal of Education and Work, 26(2), 187–218.
Canal, J. F., & Rodríguez, C. (2016). Doctoral training and labour market needs. Evidence in Spain. Research Evaluation, 25(1), 79–93.
Canal, J. F., & Wall, A. (2014). Factors determining the career success of doctorate holders: evidence from the Spanish case. Studies in Higher Education, 39(10), 1750–1773.
Caparrós, A. (2014). Geographical mobility and potential wage gain of immigrants within Spain. Regional Studies, 48(4), 680–690.
Caparrós, A. (2016). The impact of education on intergenerational occupational mobility. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 92(February), 94–104.
Commission, European. (2016). Horizon 2020—Work Programme 2016–2017–3. Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions. Report No.: C(2016)1349. Brussels: European Commission.
Cox, D. R. (1972). Regression models and life-tables. Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 34(2), 187–220.
Cryer, P. (1998). Transferable skills, marketability and lifelong learning: The particular case of postgraduate research students. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 207–216.
Ehrenberg, R., & Mavros, P. (1995). Do doctoral students’ financial support patterns affect their times to degree and completion probabilities? The Journal of Human Resources, 30(3), 581–609.
European Commission. (2005). i2010—a European information society for growth and employment. COM (2005) 229 final. Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2011). Report of mapping exercise on doctoral training in Europe “Towards a common approach”. Brussels: European Commission.
Evangelauf, J. (1989). Lengthening of time to earn a doctorate causes concern. Chronicle of Higher Education, 35, 13–14.
Fox, M., & Stephan, P. (2001). Careers of young scientists: preferences, prospects and realities by gender and field. Social Studies of Science, 31(1), 109–122.
García-Quevedo, J., Mas-Verdú, F., & Polo-Otero, J. (2012). Which firms want PhDs? An analysis of the determinants of the demand. Higher Education, 63(5), 607–620.
Golde, C. M. (2005). The role of the department and discipline in doctoral student attrition: Lessons from four department. The Journal of Higher Education, 76(6), 669–700.
Grambsch, P. M., & Therneau, T. M. (1994). Proportional hazards tests and diagnostics based on weighted residuals. Biometrika, 81, 515–526.
Guan, W. (2003). From the help desk: Bootstrapped standard errors. The Stata Journal, 3(1), 71–80.
INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística). (2007). 2006 survey on human resources in science and technology. Madrid: INE.
INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística). (2010). 2009 survey on human resources in science and technology. Madrid: INE.
King, M. F. (2008). PhD completion and attrition: analysis of baseline demographic data from the PhD completion project. Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools.
Lassibille, G., & Navarro, L. (2011). How long does it take to earn a higher education degree in Spain? Research in Higher Education, 52(1), 63–80.
Lawless, J. (1982). Statistical models and methods for lifetime data. New York: Wiley.
Lee, L. (1992). Amemiya’s generalized least squares and tests of overidentification in simultaneous equations models with qualitative or limited dependent variables. Econometric Reviews, 11(3), 319–328.
Lee, H., Miozzo, M., & Laredo, P. (2010). Career pattern and competence of PhDs in science and engineering in the knowledge economy: The case of graduates from a UK research-based university. Research Policy, 39, 869–881.
McCormick, B. (1997). Regional unemployment and labour mobility in the UK. European Economic Review, 41(3–5), 581–589.
Newey, W. (1987). Efficient estimation of limited dependent variable models with endogenous explanatory variables. Journal of Econometrics, 36(3), 231–250.
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). (2013). Panorama de la Educación, Indicadores de la OCDE 2013. Informe español. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte.
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). (2014). Panorama de la Educación, Indicadores de la OCDE 2014. Informe español. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte.
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2016). Main science and technology indicators full database. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/sti/msti.htm.
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2018). Education at a glance: Educational attaintment and labour-force status. OECD Education Statistics (database).
Robin, S., & Cahuzac, E. (2003). Knocking on academia’s doors: an inquiry into the early careers of doctors in life science. Labour, 17(1), 1–23.
Seagram, B. C., Gould, J., & Pyke, W. (1998). An investigation of gender and other variables on time to completion of doctoral degrees. Research in Higher Education, 39(3), 319–335.
Sheridan, P. M., & Pyke, S. W. (1994). Predictors of time to completion of graduate degrees. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, XXIV-2, 68–87.
Siegfried, J. J., & Stock, W. A. (2001). So you want to earn a Ph.D. in Economics: How long do you think it will take? Journal of Human Resources, 36(2), 364–378.
Spence, M. A. (1973). Job market signalling. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87(3), 355–374.
Thune, T. (2009). Doctoral students on the university-industry interface: A review of the literature. Higher Education, 58, 637–651.
Tinto, V. (1975). Dropout from Higher Education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45(1), 89–125.
Tuckman, H., Coyle, S., & Bae, Y. (1990). On time to the Doctorate: A study of the increased time to complete doctorates in Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2015). UNESCO science report: Towards 2030. Paris: UNESCO.
Walker, I., & Zhu, Y. (2008). The college wage premium and the expansion of higher education in the UK. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 110(4), 695–709.
Wao, H. O. (2010). Time to the doctorate: Multilevel discrete-time hazard analysis. Educational Assessment. Evaluation and Accountability, 22(3), 227–247.
Wooldrige, J. (2002). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. Cambridge: MIT Press.
World Bank. (2013). World development indicators 2013. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
See Table 7.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Caparrós-Ruiz, A. Time to the Doctorate and Research Career: Some Evidence from Spain. Res High Educ 60, 111–133 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-018-9506-2
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-018-9506-2