A Signal of Diligence? Student Work Experience and Later Employment Chances

Stijn Baert, Olivier Rotsaert (), Dieter Verhaest and Eddy Omey
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Olivier Rotsaert: Ghent University

No 9170, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate the impact of student work experience on later hiring chances. To completely rule out potential endogeneity, we present a field experiment in which various forms of student work experience are randomly disclosed by more than 1000 fictitious graduates applying for jobs in Belgium. Theoretical mechanisms are investigated by estimating heterogeneous treatment effects by the relevance and timing of revealed student work experience. We find that neither form of student work experience enhances initial recruitment decisions. For a number of candidate subgroups (by education level and occupation type), even an adverse effect is found.

Keywords: student employment; randomised field experiments; transitions in youth; human capital; signaling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D83 I21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - revised version published as 'Student Employment and Later Labour Market Success: No Evidence for Higher Employment Chances' in: Kyklos , 2016, 69 (3), 401 - 425

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