What Are the Important Factors Influencing the Recruitment and Retention of Doctoral Students in a Public Health Setting? A Discrete Choice Experiment Survey in China

Shimeng Liu, Yingyao Chen, Shunping Li, Ningze Xu, Chengxiang Tang and Yan Wei
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Shimeng Liu: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Yingyao Chen: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Shunping Li: Centre for Health Management and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
Ningze Xu: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Chengxiang Tang: School of Public Administration, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Yan Wei: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Objectives: This study aims to investigate the employment preferences of doctoral students majoring in social medicine and health care management (SMHCM), to inform policymakers and future employers on how to address recruitment and retention requirements at CDCs across China. Methods: An online discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to elicit doctoral SMHCM students’ job preferences. The scenarios were described with seven attributes: monthly income, employment location, housing benefits, children’s education opportunities, working environment, career promotion speed, and bianzhi. A conditional logit model and a mixed logit model were used to evaluate the relative importance of the selected attributes. Results: A total of 167 doctoral SMHCM students from 24 universities completed the online survey. All seven attributes were statistically significant with the expected sign and demonstrated the existence of preference heterogeneity. Monthly income and employment location were of most concern for doctoral SMHCM students when deciding their future jobs. Among the presented attributes, working environment was of least concern. For the sub-group analysis, employment located in a first-tier city was more likely to lead to a higher utility value for doctoral students who were women, married, from an urban area, and had a high annual family income. Unsurprisingly, when compared to single students, married students were willing to forgo more for good educational opportunities for their children. Conclusions: Our study suggests that monthly income and employment location were valued most by doctoral SMHCM students when choosing a job. A more effective human resource policy intervention to attract doctoral SMHCM students to work in CDCs, especially CDCs in third-tier cities should consider both the incentives provided by the job characteristics and the background of students. Doctoral students are at the stages of career preparation, so the results of this study would be informative for policymakers and help them to design the recruitment and retention policies for CDCs.

Keywords: social medicine and health care management; doctoral students; public health; job preference; discrete choice experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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