Postdoctoral employment and future nonacademic career prospects

Abstract

Most recipients of doctorates leave universities some years after graduation, while little is known about their future non-academic career prospects. I report results from a novel microlevel database that links information about doctoral dissertations completed in Germany with doctorate recipients’ social security records. The results, based on graduates’ individual careers for five broader subject groups, indicate that postdoctoral periods do not result in a wage premium when changing to the non-academic sector.