La vida profesional de los doctores italianos al principio de su carrera: ¿compensa la movilidad ?

We develop a secondary analysis of data provided by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT) on the doctorate holders who graduated from Italian universities in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Special attention is directed towards those who were not employed before obtaining their PhDs. The paper investigates the transition of PhD graduates into the job market in terms of employment outcomes over a period of increasing financial hardships that started in the new century. Furthermore, it describes the relationship between some socio-demographic characteristics of those doctorate holders and the distinguishing features of their job. We are also interested in the effect of the geographic location of the PhD course on employment conditions. One of the central purposes of our paper is to verify whether geographical mobility during graduate and postgraduate studies as well as during early-stage employment have a positive impact in terms of employment outcomes. The cohorts that earned their PhDs later are more mobile with regard to their educational and job paths, but are disadvantaged regarding employment outcomes. The economic crisis requires top human resources to be more geographically mobile than they were in the past. However, this constraint, as emerged from our research, may double as an opportunity, as mobile PhDs obtain better outcomes in comparison to stayers.