The singularity of the German doctorate as a signal for talent: Causes, consequences and future developments

Egon Franck and Christian Opitz ()
Additional contact information
Christian Opitz: Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich

No 28, Working Papers from University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU)

Abstract: Internationally unparalleled fractions of doctoral degree holders among German top managers and superior career perspectives for German university graduates holding a doctoral degree suggest that the traditional German doctorate has not been primarily perceived as a specialized indicator for abilities to conduct research in a certain scientific field, but rather as an indicator for a more general form of human capital, which we refer to as talent. In order to convince on the labor market, educational credentials have to be validated somehow. We discuss alternative validation mechanisms which can be attributed to the higher education systems of the U.S., France, and Germany. By defining specific ”model educational paths” the problem of signal validation explains the singularity of the German doctorate. The educational paths of top managers in a sample of the 100 largest companies in these countries is consistent with our theoretical conjectures. A shift from the traditional German chair-based model in doctoral education to formal programs is likely to alter the signaling content of the German doctorate. Future options for signaling talent are closely tied to the reform of the German higher education system.

JEL-codes: D82 I21 J24 J44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://repec.business.uzh.ch/RePEc/iso/ISU_WPS/28_ISU_full.pdf First version, 2001 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iso:wpaper:0028

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by IBW IT ().