Scarcity of science and engineering students in the Netherlands

Joëlle Noailly (), Daniël Waagmeester, Bas Jacobs, Marieke Rensman and Dinand Webbink

No 92, CPB Document from CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis

Abstract: In this report, we investigate whether policies that stimulate enrolment in S&E-studies are effective at increasing R&D-activity. Scarcity of science and engineering (S&E) graduates could potentially call for government intervention, because of the role of S&E's in R&D, and because R&D in turn is characterised by positive spillovers. First, we analyse the situation on the Dutch labour market for S&E graduates. We do not find evidence for scarcity of S&E graduates. Rather, the labour market position vis-à-vis other graduates weakened. A possible explanation to reconcile this conclusion with a widely felt concern of S&E shortages among employers is increasing internationalisation of the S&E labour market.Concerning policy, we argue that expanding the stock of S&E graduates is not very effective for boosting R&D activity. More than half the number of S&E graduates do not end up working in R&D. De increasing internationalisation of the S&E labour market can diminish the attractiveness of S&E courses.

JEL-codes: H52 J31 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm and nep-ino
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpb:docmnt:92

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