A new GLO Discussion Paper studies the Australian labor market for native and foreign students and finds that acquiring education in the host country does not appear to eliminate uneven labor market outcomes between natives and foreigners.

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GLO Discussion Paper No. 621, 2020

The labour market for native and international PhD students: similarities, differences, and the role of (university) employers – Download PDF
by Tani, Massimiliano

GLO Fellow Max Tani

Author Abstract: This paper studies the labor market outcomes of native and foreign PhD graduates staying as migrants in Australia, using data on career destinations over the period 1999-2015. Natives with an English-speaking background emerge as benefiting from positive employer discrimination, especially if graduating in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), for which they receive a premium that is unrelated to observed characteristics such as gender, age, and previous work experience. In contrast, foreign PhD graduates with a non-English speaking background experience worse labor market outcomes, especially if they work in the university sector. Acquiring education in the host country does not appear to eliminate uneven labor market outcomes between natives and foreigners.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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