University Graduates’ Early Career Decisions and Interregional Mobility: Self-Employment vs. Salaried Job

We explore the relationship between university graduates’ early career decisions and their interregional mobility. We focus on graduates’ immediate entry into the labor market, analyzing the antecedents and relations of their career decisions (self-employment vs. salaried job) and mobility choices (staying in their university region or moving). We use a longitudinal dataset of 3,436 students from 62 Italian universities who were surveyed at graduation and one year later. We find that self-employment most likely occurs among those who study and stay in their home region, as well as those who study in a different region and return to their home one. Conversely, salaried positions are more appealing to those who, after graduation, move to a region other than their home one. Individual characteristics explain the decision to enter self-employment or accept a salaried job. In contrast, the decision to move or stay is mainly affected by contextual factors.