Varieties of Academic Labor Markets in Europe

Afonso, Alexandre

doi:10.1017/s1049096516001505

Cited by 34 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…As a result, the 'centralized and highly connected positions of higher-prestige institutions enable substantial influence, via doctoral placement, over the research agendas, research communities, and departmental norms throughout a discipline' (Clauset et al 2015: 4; see also Burris [2004]). In contrast, such a clear hierarchy is difficult to find in continental European countries, where knowledge production within academia is less centralised and less uniform (Afonso 2016).…”

Section: Network Topology and Idea Diffusionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Networks of economic policy expertise in Germany and the United States in the wake of the Great Recession

Flickenschild

Afonso

2018

Journal of European Public Policy

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This article shows how the network structure of economic expertise can influence the diffusion of ideas in economic policymaking. Applying social network analysis, we analyse the networks of economic policy advice in the United States and Germany around the Council of Economic Advisors and the Sachverständigenrat. With the help of co-publication and institutional affiliation data, we argue that the more fragmented structure of academic expertise in Germany hindered the diffusion of new ideas and fostered continuity in the austerity paradigm. In contrast, the more connected structure of economic expertise in the United States facilitated the diffusion of ideas and changes in dominant ideas about economic intervention. KEYWORDS Economic expertise; social network analysis; Council of Economic Advisors (United States); Council of Economic Experts (Germany)

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Section: Network Topology and Idea Diffusionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Networks of economic policy expertise in Germany and the United States in the wake of the Great Recession

Flickenschild

Afonso

2018

Journal of European Public Policy

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“…Furthermore, those who were employed in HE research jobs were significantly less likely to have a permanent contract than those working in HE teaching. This reflects the fact that many of the available academic research jobs, particularly post-doctoral positions, are only offered on a fixed-term basis (Afonso 2016;Xing et al 2019). According to Afonso (2016), the current funding system of universities in the UK, which is closely tied to academic performance, provides strong incentives for university departments to hire researchers with a competitive publication record.…”

Section: List Of Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This reflects the fact that many of the available academic research jobs, particularly post-doctoral positions, are only offered on a fixed-term basis (Afonso 2016;Xing et al 2019). According to Afonso (2016), the current funding system of universities in the UK, which is closely tied to academic performance, provides strong incentives for university departments to hire researchers with a competitive publication record. As a result, the transition from PhD to a permanent position in academia is particularly difficult, and many doctoral graduates are employed in temporary or flexible contracts.…”

Section: List Of Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While attaining high level of skills and qualifications is considered to be the key to economic and social prosperity (Purcell et al 2004), there is evidence that the academic career path is becoming increasingly uncertain and precarious. As the number of PhD graduates increased over the past decades at a faster rate than the number of academic jobs, obtaining a tenure-track position has become ever more competitive, and a growing number of academics are employed on a temporary or fixed-term contract (Afonso 2016). It should be noted though, that the academic labour market is part of a larger labour market for doctorate recipients, who often seek alternative employment in the non-academic sector (Aanerud et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gendered Career Pathways among Doctoral Graduates in the United Kingdom

Peri-Rotem

2019

Social Sciences

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While women form about half of PhD students in Western countries, previous studies have shown that female doctoral graduates are underrepresented in senior positions and have lower earnings compared to their male counterparts within and outside academia. Less is known however about the role of gender in determining the odds of securing a permanent position among doctorate recipients. In this study, we use data from the UK Doctoral Impact and Career Tracking Survey from 2013 to explore the career trajectories of doctoral graduates within seven to nine years after earning their degree. We find that in every observed time point following graduation (0.5, 3.5, and 7–9 years), men are significantly more likely to work in a permanent job than women are. Furthermore, gender gaps in permanent employment are particularly pronounced in the private sector and in non-academic occupations. Using a nested logistic regression model, we find that the higher propensity of female doctoral graduates to work in part-time employment compared to their male counterparts, in combination with other differential employment characteristics has cumulative negative implications on their likelihood of securing a permanent position.

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“…At the institutional level, research evaluation practices with the goal of distributing public funding have been introduced in several countries [1]. At the same time, universities and research institutions rely more and more on grants to pay salaries, which are obtained by single researchers or consortia via a competitive procedure, in parallel to an increase of the percentage of non-permanent positions and competition among scientists [2][3][4][5]. The goal of these policies is to improve the performance of the research system, e.g., at a national or European level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical research without projects

Navascués

Budroni

2019

PLoS ONE

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We propose a funding scheme for theoretical research that does not rely on project proposals, but on recent past scientific productivity. Given a quantitative figure of merit on the latter and the total research budget, we introduce a number of policies to decide the allocation of funds in each grant call. Under some assumptions on scientific productivity, some of such policies are shown to converge, in the limit of many grant calls, to a funding configuration that is close to the maximum total productivity of the whole scientific community. We present numerical simulations showing evidence that these schemes would also perform well in the presence of statistical noise in the scientific productivity and/or its evaluation. Finally, we prove that one of our policies cannot be cheated by individual research units. Our work must be understood as a first step towards a mathematical theory of the research activity.

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Varieties of Academic Labor Markets in Europe

Cited by 34 publications

References 8 publications

Networks of economic policy expertise in Germany and the United States in the wake of the Great Recession

Networks of economic policy expertise in Germany and the United States in the wake of the Great Recession

Gendered Career Pathways among Doctoral Graduates in the United Kingdom

Theoretical research without projects

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