Introduction

Welcome to my personal website, where you can find information on my research. All my publications, as well as data that I've used for several papers can be found at www.thijsbol.com. I just finished my dissertation at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research an the Amsterdam Center of Inequality Studies (AMCIS). I am currently working as postdoctoral researcher in the PROO project at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. The PROO project focuses on educational systems.

I am mainly interested in social stratification, education, occupations and wage inequality. My current research focuses on (1) educational systems (with Herman van de Werfhorst ), (2) educational expansion, technological change, and the returns to education, (3) the effects of occupational closure on wages and income inequality in Germany and the United Kingdom (with Kim Weeden ), (4) how occupational closure and social capital work together in the hiring process (with Valentina Di Stasio), and (5) the school-to-work transition and the returns to education in several countries

• Personal website (with PDFs of publications)

Summary of PhD research

While there is a large literature that studies the effects of institutional context on the strength of the education effect, and there is much written on the mechanism(s) by which education pays off, these two literatures are rarely combined. Just as the mechanism-literature has developed largely without reference to institutional context, so too has the research on cross-country variation in the education effect developed largely without reference to the mechanisms by which education pays off. The central goal of this dissertation is to bridge both literatures and propose a new framework in which we studyhow the institutional context influences the importance of the mechanisms by which education pays off in the labor market. Three mechanisms are distinguished: productivity-enhancing skills, positional good, and social closure. In the dissertationseveral institutional conditions are argued to influence the importance of (one of) the three mechanisms, mainly related to the educational system and labor market institutions. Empirically the three mechanisms are distinguished from each other by using three research designs (the sheepskin design, a relative measure of education, occupational closure design), which are then related to institutional indicators (e.g. strong vocational orientation in educational systems, educational expansion, level of labor market coordination). The three different research designs all give evidence for the general proposition that the mechanism by which education pays off in the labor market is dependent on institutional context. 

Personal webpage

Please go to my personal website to download (most of) my publications and working papers. 

• Personal website Thijs Bol

CV

My full CV can be downloaded below:

• Full CV (updated July 2013).

Education

• 2013-present: Postdoctoral researcher, University of Amsterdam.
• 2008-2013:  PhD in Sociology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Thesis: " The effects of education on labor market outcomes in their institutional context". Supervisors: Herman van de Werfhorst and Daniela Grunow. 2011: Research visit at Department of Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States (March-June). Invited by Kim A. Weeden.
• 2006-2008: MSc in Sociology ( cum laude ), Sociology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Thesis: "The Fragmentation of Solidarity in Dutch Occupational Pensions".
• 2003-2006: BSc in Sociology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• 1997-2003: High School VWO, OSG de Hogeberg, Texel, The Netherlands.

Work Experience

• 2006-present: Teaching associate, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam.
  Undergraduate courses: Quantitative Methods, Research Methodology, Introduction to Sociological Theory, Social Institutions and Organizations.
  Graduate courses: Advanced Quantitative Methods.

• 2008-present: Editorial board member of graduate student research journal Amsterdam Social Science.

• 2008-2010: Coordinator of EQUALSOC research team "Mechanisms for the effect of education on the labour market".

• 2008-2009: PhD representative of the research cluster "Institutions, Inequalities and Organizations" at the Amsterdam School for Social science Research, University of Amsterdam.

• 2006: Student member of the educational board of Sociology, University of Amsterdam.

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