A webinar with ACSES Small Research Grant recipient Dr Rong Zhu, to discuss the findings of his research project "Socioeconomic disadvantages, choice of disciplines, and post-university labour market performance".

Using data from the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, this study investigates the empirical role of multidimensional disadvantages in the choice of academic disciplines at university, which then translates into different post-university labour market performance.

Specifically, we examine whether the choice of field of study in tertiary education was influenced by multidimensional disadvantages including

(i) Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Origin (ATSI),

(ii) non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESB),

(iii) low socioeconomic status in childhood, (iv) father in unemployment for 6 months or more while growing up, and (

(v) whether in a single-parent family when aged 14.

We then quantify how the choice of field of study contributes to the labour market outcomes of workers from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our analysis sheds new light on possible channels of intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic disadvantages and inequality in Australia.

Dr Rong Zhu is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Flinders University and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Germany. His research interests include education economics, labour economics, and health economics. Rong has an established record of publications in leading journals (e.g., Economic Journal, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization) and competitive research grants (e.g., Australian Research Council Discovery and Linkage schemes, Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success, National Centre for Vocational Education Research). Rong was a recipient of the 2022 South Australian Young Tall Poppy Science Award.

Duration: 45 minutes