Do Internships Pay Off? The Effects of Student Internships on Earnings

Shushanik Margaryan, Nils Saniter, Mathias Schumann () and Thomas Siedler
Additional contact information
Nils Saniter: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi)
Mathias Schumann: University of Hamburg

No 12478, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper studies the causal effect of student internship experience in firms on earnings later in life. We use mandatory firm internships at German universities as an instrument for doing a firm internship while attending university. Employing longitudinal data from graduate surveys, we find positive and significant earnings returns of about 6% in both OLS and IV regressions. The positive returns are particularly pronounced for individuals and areas of study that are characterized by a weak labor market orientation. The empirical findings show that graduates who completed a firm internship face a lower risk of unemployment during the first year of their careers, suggesting a smoother transition to the labor market.

Keywords: labor market returns; higher education; skill development; internships; instrumental variable (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J01 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published in: Journal of Human Resources, 2022, 57(4), 1242-1275

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Journal Article: Do Internships Pay Off? The Effects of Student Internships on Earnings (2022)
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