TY - JOUR T1 - Do Internships Pay Off? The Effects of Student Internships on Earnings JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 1242 LP - 1275 DO - 10.3368/jhr.57.4.0418-9460R2 VL - 57 IS - 4 AU - Shushanik Margaryan AU - Nils Saniter AU - Mathias Schumann AU - Thomas Siedler Y1 - 2022/07/01 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/4/1242.abstract N2 - We study the causal effect of student internship experience in firms on earnings later in life. We use mandatory firm internships at German universities as an instrument for doing a firm internship while attending university. Employing longitudinal data from graduate surveys, we find positive and significant earnings returns of about 6 percent in both ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) regressions. The positive returns are particularly pronounced for individuals and areas of study that are characterized by a weak labor market orientation. The empirical findings show that graduates who completed a firm internship face a lower risk of unemployment during the first year of their careers, suggesting a smoother transition to the labor market. ER -