Trends

Preview of the 16th Xixian Forum on Income Distribution and Public Finance
publish date:2021-09-26 publisher:Sheng Qian

Title of Lecture:Study on the Determinants of First Job Earnings of Chinese University Graduates

Time:27th September 2021, 15:30-17:00

Venue:Tencent Meeting ID: 204 414 478

Moderator:Prof. Lu Yuanping

Guest speaker:Liu Suyu

Wenlan Scholar of ZUEL, PhD of Oxford University

Brief Introduction:

  This study selected graduates from a small number of local second-tier undergraduate institutions in a coastal province in southeast China to examine the impact of their family background and school performance on their first job earnings after graduation, and the interactive role that gender plays in this. The experimental results indicate that for graduates of the same level of higher education, some factors that are often noticed, such as family household and academic performance in school, do not in fact have a significant impact on graduates' first job earnings as commonly believed. In contrast, factors that do not receive universal attention, such as the practical skills of graduates, have a more significant impact on their first job earnings. In terms of gender, female graduates earn more in their first job than their male counterparts, which also differs from classical theory and people's direct empirical perceptions. The results of the study suggest that the application of classical theory needs to be more effectively combined with concrete practice for the Chinese university graduate job market. At the same time, many features of China's university graduate job market offer further theoretical deepening and empirical exploration that is not available in other countries.