Completing a Ph.D. Degree in Real Estate in Korea

Screening theory posits that screening for good applicants is the best strategy to ensure students complete a degree. Human capital theory implies the curriculum, faculty, and educational environment are more important factors. We test these theories using duration models of degree completion in a Korean real estate Ph.D. program. We first consider only variables that are available at the time of admission and then include data pertaining to the educational experience. We test how close our two models are in spirit to Vuong’s (1989) closeness test. We find that curriculum, educational environment, and student outside obligations can affect the degree completion rate.