Monetary and Non-Monetary Benefits of a Doctoral Degree
Project period: June 2015 – January 2016
Research Areas:
Tasks
Education pays off. Higher education entails higher income and lower unemployment risk for individuals. Moreover, non-monetary benefits like higher life or job satisfaction, as well as positive returns for society, can be generated by investments in postgraduate education. Benefits for society consist of increases in welfare levels, for example, in terms of stronger social cohesion or greater political participation. The study focuses on doctoral students and analyses their monetary and non-monetary returns on an individual basis and for society in general.
Firstly, this feasibility study delivers a literature review of the research findings of both international and national empirical studies on the returns on a doctoral degree. It analyses the applied empirical methods and the data sources used. Secondly, the available German datasets are evaluated regarding their information, sample sizes, and representativeness. Finally, we outline a modelling approach to quantifying the monetary and non-monetary returns on a doctoral degree for individuals and for society.
Methods
Literature review and feasibility study.
Results
Presentation of preliminary results, Wolfgang Auer and Anita Fichtl, 15.09.2015, Berlin.
Presentation of final results, Anita Fichtl and Timo Hener, 17.02.2016, Berlin.
