Faculty Hiring Network Reveals Possible Decision-Making Mechanism

Abstract

Social physics (or sociophysics) offers new research perspectives for addressing social issues in various domains. In this study, we explore the decision-making process of doctoral graduates during their transition from graduation to employment, drawing on the ideas of sociophysics. We divide the process into two decision steps and propose a generative model based on appropriate assumptions. This model effectively reproduces empirical data, allowing us to derive essential parameters that influence the decision-making process from empirical observations. Through a comparison of the best-fit parameters, we discover that doctoral graduates in business disciplines tend to exhibit more concentrated employment choices, while those in computer science and history disciplines demonstrate a greater diversity of options. Furthermore, we observe that universities consider factors beyond rankings when selecting doctoral graduates.