Which firms want PhDs? The effect of the university-industry relationship on the PhD labour market

Francisco Más-Verdú, Jose Polo () and Jose Garcia-Quevedo
Additional contact information
Francisco Más-Verdú: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

No 2010R02, Working Papers from Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness

Abstract: PhD graduates hold the highest education degree, are trained to conduct research and can be considered a key element in the creation, commercialization and diffusion of innovations. The impact of PhDs on innovation and economic development takes place through several channels such as the accumulation of scientific capital stock, the enhancement of technology transfers and the promotion of cooperation relationships in innovation processes. Although the placement of PhDs in industry provides a very important mechanism for transmitting knowledge from universities to firms, information about the characteristics of the firms that employ PhDs is very scarce. The goal of this paper is to improve understanding of the determinants of the demand for PhDs in the private sector. Three main potential determinants of the demand for PhDs are considered: cooperation between firms and universities, R&D activities of firms and several characteristics of firms, size, sector, productivity and age. The results from the econometric analysis show that cooperation between firms and universities encourages firms to recruit PhDs and point to the existence of accumulative effects in the hiring of PhD graduates.

Date: 2010-04-14
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.orkestra.deusto.es/images/investigacion ... pers/2010-R02WPS.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Which firms want PhDS? The effect of the university-industry relationship on the PhD labour market (2010)
Working Paper: Which firms want PhDs? The effect of the university-industry relationship on the PhD labour market (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ivc:wpaper:2010r02

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness 20012. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Asier Murciego ().