Field of Study and University Graduates’ Early Employment Outcomes in Italy during 1995–2004 Gabriele Ballarino — Massimiliano Bratti Abstract. In a period of expanding higher education, the field of study becomes a key determinant of university graduates’ labour market success. In this paper, by means of multivariate analyses of the quality of graduates’ early employment outcomes, we first describe how the effect of different fields of study on the university-to-work transition changed between 1995 and 2004 in Italy. Second, we put forward some alternative hypotheses to interpret the changes observed over time and assess which ones seem to be more consistent with the data. 1. Introduction and motivation Research on the transition from school to work is increasingly focusing on the horizontal stratification of educational systems, i.e. on how different educational tracks affect students’ occupational chances. This interest is clearly associated with the educational expansion generally observed in the developed countries: as average education increases, the horizontal dimension of educational strati- fication becomes more and more important in explaining social stratification. This is particularly true for contemporary higher education (HE, hereafter): in this case, what is of interest is how different fields of study make a difference in the university-to-work transition, and how this difference varies over time. In a period of rapid expansion Gabriele Ballarino — Massimiliano Bratti (author for correspondence), Dipar- timento di Scienze Economiche Aziendali e Statistiche (DEAS), Università degli Studi di Milano, via Conservatorio 7, I-20122 Milan, Italy. E-mail: massimiliano.bratti@unimi.it. We thank participants to the SASE 2006 conference and two anonymous refer- ees for useful suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. LABOUR 23 (3) 421–457 (2009) JEL I21, J24 © 2009 CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Rd., Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA.