摘要：Using a survey on the first destinations of award recipients in higher education from 1982to 1997, the trend in first destinations and starting salaries for primary level graduates in Irelandis studied. The data show that despite large increases in supply throughout the 1980s, the averagereal wage received by recent graduates increased by 25 per cent over the decade. This phenomenonis explained by a combination of rising emigration and increasing demand during the period. Withthe onset of economic recession in 1990 and lower levels of emigration and demand, the real wagefell between 1990 and 1995. The paper finds that the increase in supply during this period was themain reason for the fall in real wages
