IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iae/iaewps/wp2007n33.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Problem of Overskilling in Australia and Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Kostas Mavromaras

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne and IZA, Bonn)

  • Seamus McGuinness

    (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin IZA, Bonn)

  • Nigel O’Leary

    (University of Swansea)

  • Peter Sloane

    (University of Swansea and IZA, Bonn)

  • Yin King Fok

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

This paper examines the parallel trends in education and labour market developments in Australia and Britain. It uses unique information in the WERS and HILDA surveys on reported overskilling in the workplace. To a degree, the overskilling information overcomes the problem of unobserved ability differences and focuses on the actual jobemployee mismatch more than the conventional overeducation variables can. The paper finds that the prevalence of overskilling decreases with education at least for Australia, but the wage penalty associated with overskilling increases with education. Although the general patterns of overskilling (prevalence and penalties) are fairly similar between Australia and Britain, the problem appears to be greater in Britain.

Suggested Citation

  • Kostas Mavromaras & Seamus McGuinness & Nigel O’Leary & Peter Sloane & Yin King Fok, 2007. "The Problem of Overskilling in Australia and Britain," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2007n33, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n33
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/working_paper_series/wp2007n33.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allen, Jim & van der Velden, Rolf, 2001. "Educational Mismatches versus Skill Mismatches: Effects on Wages, Job Satisfaction, and On-the-Job Search," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 434-452, July.
    2. Battu, H. & Belfield, C.R. & Sloane, P.J., 2000. "How Well Can We Measure Graduate Over- Education and Its Effects?," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 171, pages 82-93, January.
    3. O'Leary, Nigel C. & Sloane, Peter J., 2005. "The Return to a University Education in Great Britain," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 193, pages 75-89, July.
    4. Andries de Grip & Hans Bosma & Dick Willems & Martin van Boxtel, 2008. "Job-worker mismatch and cognitive decline," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(2), pages 237-253, April.
    5. Mark B. Stewart, 1983. "On Least Squares Estimation when the Dependent Variable is Grouped," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(4), pages 737-753.
    6. Chapman, Bruce & Ryan, Chris, 2005. "The access implications of income-contingent charges for higher education: lessons from Australia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 491-512, October.
    7. Giorgio Di Pietro & Peter Urwin, 2006. "Education and skills mismatch in the Italian graduate labour market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 79-93.
    8. Francis Green & Steven McIntosh & Anna Vignoles, 2002. "The Utilization of Education and Skills: Evidence from Britain," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 70(6), pages 792-811, December.
    9. Geoff Mason, 1996. "Graduate Utilisation In British Industry: The Initial Impact Of Mass Higher Education," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 156(1), pages 93-103, May.
    10. Sattinger, Michael, 1993. "Assignment Models of the Distribution of Earnings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 831-880, June.
    11. Robst, John, 2007. "Education and job match: The relatedness of college major and work," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 397-407, August.
    12. Francis Green & Steven McIntosh, 2007. "Is there a genuine under-utilization of skills amongst the over-qualified?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 427-439.
    13. repec:sae:niesru:v:156:y::i:1:p:93-103 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Inmaculada Garc�a-Mainar & V�ctor M. Montuenga-G�mez, 2017. "Subjective educational mismatch and signalling in Spain," Documentos de Trabajo dt2017-03, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Zaragoza.
    2. Arnaud Chevalier & Joanne Lindley, 2009. "Overeducation and the skills of UK graduates," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 172(2), pages 307-337, April.
    3. Judit Albiol-Sánchez & Luis Diaz-Serrano & Mercedes Teruel, 2021. "The Transition to Self-Employment and Perceived Skill-Mismatches: Panel Data Evidence from Eleven EU Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 957-977, February.
    4. Amna Qadeer & Khadija Fatima, 2017. "Education-Job Mismatch among Graduates of Administrative Staff: A Case Study of University of Gujrat," Matrix Science Mathematic (MSMK), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 40-44, January.
    5. Shujaat Farooq, 2015. "Job Mismatches in Pakistan: Is there Some Wage Penalty to Graduates?," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 147-164.
    6. Lucía Mateos-Romero & María del Mar Salinas-Jiménez, 2018. "Labor Mismatches: Effects on Wages and on Job Satisfaction in 17 OECD Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 369-391, November.
    7. Balzhan Serikbayeva & Kanat Abdulla, 2022. "Education-Job Mismatch: Implications for Individual Earnings and Aggregate Output," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 723-752, September.
    8. Paulina Broniatowska, 2021. "Wage Effects of Overeducation: Evidence from Poland," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 13(1), pages 25-53, March.
    9. Domadenik, Polona & Far?nik, Daša & Pastore, Francesco, 2013. "Horizontal Mismatch in the Labour Market of Graduates: The Role of Signalling," IZA Discussion Papers 7527, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Lucia Mateos & Ines Murillo & Maria del Mar Salinas, 2014. "Desajuste educativo y competencias cognitivas: efectos sobre los salarios," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 210(3), pages 85-108, September.
    11. L. Cattani & G. Guidetti & G. Pedrini, 2014. "Assessing the incidence and wage effects of overeducation among Italian graduates using a new measure for educational requirements," Working Papers wp939, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    12. Sandra Nieto & Raul Ramos, 2017. "Overeducation, Skills and Wage Penalty: Evidence for Spain Using PIAAC Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 219-236, October.
    13. Clemente Pignatti Morano, 2014. "The determinants of overeducation: Evidence from the Italian labour market," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 9, in: Adela García Aracil & Isabel Neira Gómez (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 9, edition 1, volume 9, chapter 35, pages 681-698, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    14. Mateos Romero, Lucía & Murillo Huertas, Inés P. & Salinas Jiménez, Mª del Mar, 2017. "Wage effects of cognitive skills and educational mismatch in Europe," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 909-927.
    15. Mateos-Romero, Lucía & Salinas Jiménez, María del Mar, 2015. "Skills heterogeneity among graduate workers: real and apparent overeducation in the Spanish labor market," MPRA Paper 64372, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Juan Acosta-Ballesteros & María del Pilar Osorno-del Rosal & Olga María Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2018. "Overeducation of Young Workers in Spain: How Much Does the First Job Matter? Social Indicators Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 109-139, July.
    17. Morsy, Hanan & Mukasa, Adamon, 2019. "Youth Jobs, Skill and Educational Mismatches in Africa," MPRA Paper 100394, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Allen, J.P. & Badillo-Amador, L. & van der Velden, R.K.W., 2013. "Wage effects of job-worker mismatches: Heterogeneous skills or institutional effects?," ROA Research Memorandum 021, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    19. Hanan Morsy & Adamon N. Mukasa, 2019. "Working Paper 326 - Youth Jobs, Skill and Educational Mismatches in Africa," Working Paper Series 2452, African Development Bank.
    20. Ferreira Sequeda, Maria & Künn, Annemarie & de Grip, Andries, 2016. "Work-related learning and skill development in Europe: Does initial skill mismatch matter?," Research Memorandum 027, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n33. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sheri Carnegie (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.