A Statistical Evaluation of the Effects of a Structured Postdoctoral Programme.
Bessudnov, A., Guardiancich, I. & Marimon, R. (2015). A Statistical Evaluation of the Effects of a Structured Postdoctoral Programme. Studies in Higher Education, 40(9), 1588-1604.
Post-doctoral programmes have recently become an important step leading from doctoral education to permanent academic careers in the social sciences. In this paper we investigate the effects of a large and structured post-doctoral programme in the social sciences on a number of academic and non-academic outcomes of fellows. We employ propensity score matching to match fellows with applicants with similar characteristics who did not receive the fellowship, and then compare the outcomes in the treatment and control groups. The programme has a statistically significant positive effect on the general life satisfaction of former fellows and their publication activity. We argue that an active and collegial research environment, with training in academic skills during post-doctoral employment, may improve the academic outcomes of post-doctoral fellows.