Abstract
Abstract. According to human capital theory, educational level should be rewarded by the labor market. Hence, a completed doctorate should translate into higher income. This relationship between a completed doctorate and income should be more pronounced in the case of self-employment, because especially in this group the doctorate serves as a signal of an extraordinary professional qualification. The hypotheses were tested against a sample of 183 former scholarship recipients, who finished their academic education and were either employed full-time or self-employed. Results for the entire sample suggest that a completed doctorate has no effect on income. This is put into a new perspective by the confirmed impact of a doctorate on income for self-employed participants. We discuss this result with respect to the specific sample analyzed (former scholarship holders), labor market regulation issues, and from both a human capital and a signaling perspective of educational credentials.
Zusammenfassung. Nach der Humankapitaltheorie sollte das Ausbildungsniveau durch den Arbeitsmarkt belohnt werden. Daher sollte sich eine abgeschlossene Promotion in höherem Einkommen niederschlagen. Dieser Zusammenhang zwischen einer abgeschlossenen Promotion und Einkommen sollte bei Selbstständigen deutlicher ausgeprägt sein, da insbesondere bei dieser Gruppe die Promotion als Signal einer außerordentlichen fachlichen Qualifikation dient. Diese Hypothesen wurden anhand einer Stichprobe von 183 ehemaligen Stipendiaten geprüft, die ihre akademische Ausbildung bereits abgeschlossen und entweder in Vollzeit abhängig beschäftigt oder selbstständig tätig waren. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass es zwar keinen generellen Effekt einer Promotion gibt, dass aber unsere Annahme für selbstständige Studienteilnehmer zutrifft. Wir diskutieren unsere Ergebnisse im Hinblick auf die spezifische Stichprobe (ehemalige Stipendiaten) und Regulierungen des Arbeitsmarkts in Deutschland sowie aus den Perspektiven des Humankapitalansatzes einerseits und eines signaltheoretischen Ansatzes von Bildungsabschlüssen andererseits.
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