Junge, talentierte Wissenschafter und Wissenschafterinnen sind in ihrer Arbeitsplatzwahl, wie viele Studien zeigen, überdurchschnittlich
mobil. Diese hohe Mobilität verläuft oft einseitig in Richtung der prestigereichen Universitäten in den USA. Ein solcher "Brain
Drain" wirkt sich nachteilig auf die Forschungsleistung in Europa aus. Um die Beweggründe für die Arbeitsplatzentscheidung
von Forschern und Forscherinnen und damit die Gründe dieser asymmetrischen Mobilitätsströme zu ermitteln, wurden in einer
weltweiten Umfrage mehr als 10.000 Personen je drei Arbeitsplätze zur Wahl gestellt. Aus den Antworten lässt sich der Einfluss
unterschiedlicher Arbeitsplatzcharakteristika auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Arbeitsplatzentscheidung berechnen. Für junge
Wissenschafter und Wissenschafterinnen sind demnach vor allem die Aussicht auf eine durchgängige Karriere, hohe Forschungsautonomie
und die Zusammenarbeit mit renommierten Kollegen und Kolleginnen, aber auch adäquate Gehälter entscheidende Faktoren.
Forschungsbereich:Industrie-, Innovations- und internationale Ökonomie – Regionalökonomie und räumliche Analyse
Sprache:Deutsch
Factors Determining Scientists' Job Choice
Talented, young scientists are often internationally mobile. There is however an asymmetric mobility towards prestigious US
universities. This brain drain limits Europe's research performance. To shed more light on the determinants of job choice
of scientists and on asymmetric mobility flows, an international survey of more than 10,000 scientists was conducted, enabling
estimation of the impact of varying job characteristics on the probability of job choice. Young scientists are particularly
attracted by a tenure track model, high research autonomy and collaboration with prestigious peers, but also by appropriate
salaries.
WWWforEurope: Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe, August 2013, 69 Seiten
Auftraggeber: Europäische Kommission
Studie von: Projekt-Konsortium WWWforEurope
Asymmetric international mobility of highly talented scientists is well documented. We try contributing to the explanation
of this phenomenon, looking at the "competitiveness" of higher education systems in terms of being able to attract talented
scientists in their field. We characterise countries' capability to offer attractive entry positions into academic careers
using the results of a large scale experiment on the determinants of job choice in academia. Examined areas refer to the level
of salaries, quality of life, PhD studies, career perspectives, research organisation, balance between teaching and research,
funding and probability of working with high quality peers. Our results indicate that overall, the US research universities
offer the most attractive jobs for early stage researchers, consistent with the asymmetric flow of talented scientists to
the USA. Behind the USA is a group of well performing European countries, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
Austria and Germany are next, closely followed by France, which in turn is followed by Italy. Spain and Poland are, according
to our results, least able to offer attractive entry positions to an academic career.
WWWforEurope: Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe, August 2013, 88 Seiten
Auftraggeber: Europäische Kommission
Studie von: Projekt-Konsortium WWWforEurope
Based on a unique survey, we conduct a stated choice experiment to examine the determinants of career choice in academia.
Both early and later stage researchers value a balance between teaching and research, appropriate salaries, working with high-quality
peers and good availability of external grants. Attractive academic jobs for early stage researchers feature in addition a
combination of early independence and career (tenure) perspectives; later stage researchers favour jobs which make it easy
to take up new lines of research, which pay according to a public scheme including a performance element and where research
funding is provided by the university. Our findings have important implications for the structure of academic careers and
for the organisational design of research universities. Furthermore, they shed light on the institutional determinants of
the asymmetric mobility of highly talented scientists between the EU and the USA.
