Understanding the transition to work for first degree university graduates in Portugal : the case of the University of Évora

A traditional way of looking at the importance of universities assumes that these are sources of many positive effects from the point of view of the inputs, i.e. from a demand side perspective. In accordance to this perspective, the importance of a university can be measured by its multiplier effects, at a regional or national level. This perspective can be complemented with the analysis of the issues associated with the transition to work by their graduates. The paper thus analyses the factors that reveal to be explanatory of the time spent by first degree students of a small university in Portugal, the University of Évora, in order to enter the labour market. In doing so, we employ a sample of 767 students and estimate several specifications of discrete-time duration models. The results show that there are significant differences among the students from the several courses and highlight the importance of the final mark in the course. On the other hand, we did find any significant differences between male and female students.