Experimental Design
The data collection will be embedded as a separate module into an existing student survey (see Docs & Materials for a Working Paper describing the survey). The module first asks students to state expectations about their first job after graduation. We elicit expectations regarding several non-wage amenities and earnings. The survey then implements a stated-choice experiment. On each choice screen, participants see two fictitious jobs A and B. They are asked to mark the one job they prefer over the other. The jobs can differ in a total of seven non-wage amenities and earnings. The non-wage amenities include: Home-office option (days per week: 0, 2, 5), paid days off (25, 30, 35), share of women among colleagues (25%, 50%, 75%), flexible work hours (yes/no), share of colleagues who are 55 years or older (20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%), hours per week (35, 40, 45), commuting time (0-30 min, 31-60 min, >60 min). On each screen, two out of the seven amenities will randomly vary. The earnings will always vary. Each participant faces a total of seven choice screens. The survey module also includes a simple attention check question. After the stated-choice experiment, the module features a series of four vignettes. Each vignette consists of a description of a fictitious job and a series of questions to be answered on a 5-point Likert scale. The job description consists of the following amenities: Home-office option (days per week), paid days off, share of women among colleagues, flexible work hours, share of colleagues who are 55 years or older, hours per week. Note that commuting time is not included as a job characteristic. The post-vignette questions elicit the following perceptions regarding the respective work environment in random order: Enjoyable work enironment, learning from others in team, usage of modern work tools and technical equipment, good work-life balance, work flexibility and autonomy, career options, earnings growth. We plan to exploit the vignette data to shed light on the mechanisms through which the job characteristic "aging firm" affects valuations. The main candidate for meachanisms for positive evaluations is that respondents perceive aging firms to offer good career prospects. The main candidates for meachanisms for negative evaluations are that respondents perceive aging firms to be less likely to adopt modern work tools, equipment, and forms of internal organization, and offer worse prospects for an enjoyable work environment. The survey ends with open questions about what participants perceive to be the main consequences of demographic change for their career.