Labor market outcomes of recent U.S. college graduates in the STEM disciplines: Impacts of college location.

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Lysenko, T. (2017). Labor market outcomes of recent U.S. college graduates in the STEM disciplines: Impacts of college location. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

This research explores the relationship between place and the career experiences of STEM-educated recent college graduates in the U.S. over the 2000-2010 decade. Specifically, it seeks to understand how these graduates’ early career outcomes (earnings, odds of unemployment and underemployment) are contingent on the location where they received their degrees, in addition to individual and institutional level characteristics. The findings show that individual factors are the most important factors determining all three outcomes. Women and Blacks are considerably more disadvantaged (than male and White counterparts), while higher grades, more experience and spatial mobility are overwhelmingly positively related to earnings, and negatively – to chances of unemployment and underemployment. Health and engineering are the most lucrative majors in terms all three outcomes. Graduates’ outcomes worsened during the recent recession, but varied significantly across the geographic areas. Higher education institutional factors, selectivity and college specialization in STEM, are strong predictors of higher earnings, but not other outcomes. Geographic factors, such as college area STEM employment concentration and proximity to STEM clusters, are significant in explaining all three outcomes. This study contributes to the scholarship on higher education, labor market, and gender and racial disparity studies from a geographic and comparative perspective. It particularly provides policy implication on higher education policy with regards to STEM disciplines; it further calls for investigation of the relationship between higher education institution and regional development, and the integration of the efforts between the two.

Details
Author

Lysenko, Tetiana

Title

Labor market outcomes of recent U.S. college graduates in the STEM disciplines: Impacts of college location.

Physical Description

1 online resource (190 pages) : PDF

Date

2017

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

This research explores the relationship between place and the career experiences of STEM-educated recent college graduates in the U.S. over the 2000-2010 decade. Specifically, it seeks to understand how these graduates’ early career outcomes (earnings, odds of unemployment and underemployment) are contingent on the location where they received their degrees, in addition to individual and institutional level characteristics. The findings show that individual factors are the most important factors determining all three outcomes. Women and Blacks are considerably more disadvantaged (than male and White counterparts), while higher grades, more experience and spatial mobility are overwhelmingly positively related to earnings, and negatively – to chances of unemployment and underemployment. Health and engineering are the most lucrative majors in terms all three outcomes. Graduates’ outcomes worsened during the recent recession, but varied significantly across the geographic areas. Higher education institutional factors, selectivity and college specialization in STEM, are strong predictors of higher earnings, but not other outcomes. Geographic factors, such as college area STEM employment concentration and proximity to STEM clusters, are significant in explaining all three outcomes. This study contributes to the scholarship on higher education, labor market, and gender and racial disparity studies from a geographic and comparative perspective. It particularly provides policy implication on higher education policy with regards to STEM disciplines; it further calls for investigation of the relationship between higher education institution and regional development, and the integration of the efforts between the two.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Geography
Education, Higher

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

College Location
Labor Market Outcomes
Recent Graduates
Spatial
Stem Education

Subject Area

Geography & Urban Regional Analysis

Advisor(s)

Wang, Qingfang

Committee Members

Campbell, Harrison
Delmelle, Elizabeth
Zhao, Wei

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Lysenko_uncc_0694D_11519

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1185