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Pecuniary and Scientific Motives as Drivers of PhD Careers: Exploring the Evidence from Belgium

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The Science and Technology Labor Force

Part of the book series: Science, Technology and Innovation Studies ((STAIS))

Abstract

The central theme in our chapter revolves around the question of why university graduates choose to start a doctorate. Do they decide to write a doctoral dissertation to improve their competencies and skills so they have better access to high-level, better-paid jobs on the labor market? Or is this decision also based on intrinsic motivations, such as a passion for scientific research and its inherently problem-solving nature? To borrow some of the terminology introduced by Lam (2011), we could formulate our research question as follows: are university graduates motivated by financial rewards (‘gold’), academic status (‘ribbon’) or scientific challenges (‘puzzle’)? In the rest of the chapter, we will focus on the gold and the puzzle; we did not take into account a variable for ribbon in our analyses. This was partly dictated by the absence of a direct, reliable proxy but also by a concern not to make our models overly complex. The measurement of extrinsic, pecuniary motivation can be done by making use of the variable salary. However, salary can also have a broader interpretation given that upward movements on the hierarchical ladder of organizations are mostly accompanied by salary increases. According to the principles of human capital theory, employees acquire knowledge, competencies and skills on the jobs they perform and this accumulation of human capital is partly capitalized in their salary level. Topel (1991), for example, found that 10 years of seniority increases salaries in general by more than 25 %.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Belgian Science Policy Office, University of Ghent, Avenue Louise, 231, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Karl Boosten & André Spithoven

Authors
  1. Karl Boosten
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  2. André Spithoven
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Correspondence to Karl Boosten .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nat Res Univ Higher School of Economics, Inst for Stat Stud &Eco of Knowl (ISSEK), Moscow, Russia

    Leonid Gokhberg

  2. Nat Res Univ Higher School of Economics, Inst for Stat Stud &Eco of Knowl (ISSEK), Moscow, Russia

    Natalia Shmatko

  3. and Development (OECD), Organisation for Economic Cooperation, Paris Cedex 16, France

    Laudeline Auriol

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Boosten, K., Spithoven, A. (2016). Pecuniary and Scientific Motives as Drivers of PhD Careers: Exploring the Evidence from Belgium. In: Gokhberg, L., Shmatko, N., Auriol, L. (eds) The Science and Technology Labor Force. Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27210-8_6

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