Valuable experience: How internships affect university graduates’ income

Thomas Bolli (), Katherine Caves () and Maria Esther Oswaldd-Egg ()
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Thomas Bolli: KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Katherine Caves: KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Maria Esther Oswaldd-Egg: KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

No 19-459, KOF Working papers from KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich

Abstract: This paper analyzes whether and how attending an internship during tertiary education affects income. We address endogeneity with an IV approach that exploits information regarding whether the internship was a mandatory component of the study. We further address selection into programs with mandatory internship by using the share of mandatory internships at the closest university, exploiting the low mobility of Swiss students. The results suggest that doing an internship increases income. In contrast to the literature on internships we find that the effect mainly works by increasing human capital rather than through signaling, and mainly works through general rather than firm- or field-specific human capital.

Keywords: Internship; Income; Human capital; Signaling; Soft skills; Experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J01 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2019-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hrm and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kof:wpskof:19-459

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