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Abstract:
We study the role of collaboration networks in the U.S. market for early- career scientists. In 2014, about 21% of PhD graduates found their first job at a university where their advisor had a co-author—a threefold increase from 1990. Such connections more than double the probability of finding a job at a given university, even after controlling for unobserved factors at the level of PhD class–hiring university pair and for the topical fit between the PhD graduate’s dissertation and research at the hiring university. We observe a sizable citation premium for graduates placed through the advisor’s network. However, when comparing graduates hired at the same university, the productivity premium is fully explained by public information on the productivity of the PhD graduate and their advisor at the time of graduation. These results suggest that PhD advisors do not convey additional private information about match quality or the PhD graduate’s productivity in their collaboration network. While the estimated role of network- based placements has doubled from 1990 to 2014, the citation premium for network hires has remained constant.
Figure 1a: Share of PhD graduates placed within collaboration network
