College Major, Internship Experience, and Employment Opportunities: Estimates from a Résumé Audit

We use experimental data from a resume audit to estimate the impact of particular college majors and internship experience on employment prospects. Despite applying exclusively to business-related job openings, we find no evidence that business degrees improve employment prospects. By contrast, internship experience increases the interview rate by 14%. The returns to internship experience are larger for (a) nonbusiness majors and (b) applicants with high academic ability. Our data support signaling as the most likely explanation regarding the effect of internships on employment opportunities.

[1]  Ryan A. Beasley,et al.  Computerizing Audit Studies. , 2009, Journal of economic behavior & organization.

[2]  W. Dudley.  Are recent college graduates finding good jobs , 2013 .

[3]  T. Siedler,et al.  Door Opener or Waste of Time? The Effects of Student Internships on Labor Market Outcomes , 2014, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[4]  P. Riach,et al.  Field Experiments of Discrimination in the Market Place , 2002 .

[5]  Rudolf Winter-Ebmer,et al.  Returns to Apprenticeship Training in Austria: Evidence from Failed Firms , 2007 .

[6]  Peter Arcidiacono,et al.  Modeling College Major Choices Using Elicited Measures of Expectations and Counterfactuals , 2010, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[7]  D. Storrie,et al.  Lasting or Latent Scars? Swedish Evidence on the Long‐Term Effects of Job Displacement , 2006, Journal of Labor Economics.

[8]  Markus Klein,et al.  Is forcing them worth the effort? Benefits of mandatory internships for graduates from diverse family backgrounds at labour market entry , 2011 .

[9]  Paul Ryan,et al.  The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective: Corrigendum , 2001 .

[10]  S. Ruggles.  Integrated Public Use Microdata Series , 2021, Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging.

[11]  A. Heisz,et al.  The Short- and Long-Term Career Effects of Graduating in a Recession , 2012 .

[12]  Philip Oreopoulos,et al.  Why Do Skilled Immigrants Struggle in the Labor Market? a Field Experiment with Six Thousand Resumes , 2011 .

[13]  S. Bender,et al.  In the Right Place at the Wrong Time: The Role of Firms and Luck in Young Workers' Careers , 2004, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[14]  John R. Tanner,et al.  The Relation of College Internships, College Performance, and Subsequent Job Opportunity. , 1999 .

[15]  J. Robin,et al.  Career Progression, Economic Downturns, and Skills , 2013 .

[16]  S. Eriksson,et al.  Do Employers Use Unemployment as a Sorting Criterion When Hiring? Evidence from a Field Experiment , 2014, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[17]  Jaison R. Abel,et al.  Are Recent College Graduates Finding Good Jobs? , 2014 .

[18]  Dieter Verhaest,et al.  Overeducation at the Start of the Career: Stepping Stone or Trap? , 2012, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[19]  Bart Cockx,et al.  Is There Less Discrimination in Occupations Where Recruitment Is Difficult? , 2015 .

[20]  T. Spreen.  Recent College Graduates in the U.S. Labor Force: Data From the Current Population Survey , 2013 .

[21]  Philip Oreopoulos,et al.  Making College Worth it: A Review of Research on the Returns to Higher Education , 2013 .

[22]  David Neumark,et al.  Detecting Discrimination in Audit and Correspondence Studies , 2010, The Journal of Human Resources.

[23]  Felix Oberholzer-Gee.  Nonemployment stigma as rational herding: A field experiment , 2008 .

[24]  Dan‐Olof Rooth,et al.  Evidence of Ethnic Discrimination in the Swedish Labor Market Using Experimental Data , 2006, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[25]  Robert Shimer,et al.  The Probability of Finding a Job , 2008 .

[26]  Peter Cappelli,et al.  Skill Gaps, Skill Shortages and Skill Mismatches: Evidence for the Us , 2014 .

[27]  J. M. Nunley,et al.  Racial Discrimination in the Labor Market for Recent College Graduates: Evidence from a Field Experiment , 2015 .

[28]  Derek Neal,et al.  Industry-Specific Human Capital: Evidence from Displaced Workers , 1995, Journal of Labor Economics.

[29]  Opportunities Denied, Wages Diminished: Using Search Theory to Translate Audit-Pair Study Findings into Wage Differentials , 2013 .

[30]  J. M. Nunley,et al.  Unemployment, Underemployment, and Employment Opportunities: Results from a Correspondence Audit of the Labor Market for College Graduates , 2014 .

[31]  D. Pager.  The Use of Field Experiments for Studies of Employment Discrimination: Contributions, Critiques, and Directions for the Future , 2007 .

[32]  Costas Meghir,et al.  Heterogeneity in Human Capital Investments: High School Curriculum, College Major, and Careers , 2012 .

[33]  Lawrence F. Katz,et al.  The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study , 2014 .

[34]  Matthew J. Notowidigdo,et al.  Duration Dependence and Labor Market Conditions: Evidence from a Field Experiment* , 2013 .

[35]  Matthew J. Notowidigdo,et al.  Duration Dependence and Labor Market Conditions: Theory and Evidence from a Field Experiment , 2012 .