Did Bologna reform improve school-to-work transition of graduates? Evidence from Slovenia
Purpose: This paper investigates the school-to-work transition of graduates in a framework of a quazi experiment. In a predominately tuition free system we use differences in probability of employment after graduation to infer about the causal effect of different field of study and type of study program.Design/methodology/approach: By using a probit regression we calculate the probability of employment for graduates in different fields of education and different type of study program, where we control for the innate ability and effort during schooling.Findings: We find that graduating from a particular field of study affects the probability of employment in three consequent observed years. In general we find, that regardless of the field we observe decreasing probabilities of employment over the years of 2008 and 2009. We also find that new graduates holding a diploma from new vocational or academic Bologna programs face lower probability of employment comparing to graduates having a pre-Bologna degree.Practical implications: In the absence of price competition, performance indicators such as employability can provide relevant information to student choice or a management tool for efficient distribution of education funds to measured performance.Originality/value: By covering the entire population of full-time graduates in 2007, 2008 and 2009 that entered labor market for the first time after graduation we calculate probability of employment in the three consequent years allowing us to first infer about the effect of the new Bologna-harmonized programs and second infer about the crisis impact. In addition we investigate the effect of the quarter of year on the probability of employment.