University education, mismatched jobs: are there gender differences in the drivers of overeducation?

This paper studies potential gender differences in overeducation prevalence among recent highly educated entrants to the labour market and in its underlying drivers. Using representative microdata on university graduates in Spain in the academic year 2009/2010 observed in 2014, we analyse whether males and females exhibit distinct overeducation likelihoods, distinguishing between graduates below and above 30 years of age. First, we use matching estimators based on characteristics. Next, we estimate a Heckman probit regression with interactions between the gender indicator and graduates’ characteristics to study differences between males and females in the overeducation drivers. We focus on the effects of pre- and post-graduation mobility, pre- and post-graduation labour experience, on-the-job training, first job search strategies, the field of knowledge, and English language on the probability of being overeducated. We find evidence that males and females do not exhibit different overeducation risks conditional on characteristics. In general, educational credentials that act as signals of human capital are not found to be differently valued by gender.