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Over-Education and the Skills of UK Graduates

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Author Info
Arnaud Chevalier () (Royal Holloway University of London, London School of Economics, University College Dublin and IZA Bonn)
Joanne Lindley () (University of Sheffield)

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Abstract

During the early Nineties the proportion of UK graduates doubled over a very short period of time. This paper investigates the effect of the expansion on early labour market attainment, focusing on over-education. We define over-education by combining occupation codes and a self-reported measure for the appropriateness of the match between qualification and the job. We therefore define three groups of graduates: matched, apparently over-educated and genuinely over-educated; to compare pre- and post-expansion cohorts of graduates. We find the proportion of over-educated graduates has doubled, even though over-education wage penalties have remained stable. This suggests that the labour market accommodated most of the large expansion of university graduates. Apparently over-educated graduates are mostly undistinguishable from matched graduates, while genuinely over-educated graduates principally lack non-academic skills such as management and leadership. Additionally, genuine over-education increases unemployment by three months but has no impact of the number of jobs held. Individual unobserved heterogeneity differs between the three groups of graduates but controlling for it, does not alter these conclusions.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 2442.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2442

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Related research
Keywords: over-education; skills;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by 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
I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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Cited by:
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  1. Nielsen, Chantal Pohl, 2007. "Immigrant overeducation : evidence from Denmark," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4234, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  2. Francis Green & Yu Zhu, 2008. "Overqualification, Job Dissatisfaction, and Increasing Dispersion in the Returns to Graduate Education," Studies in Economics 0803, Department of Economics, University of Kent. [Downloadable!]
  3. Joanne Lindley & Steven McIntosh, 2008. "A Panel Data Analysis of the Incidence and Impact of Over-education," Working Papers 2008009, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2008. [Downloadable!]
  4. Shirley Dex & Jo Lindley, 2007. "Labour market job matching for UK minority ethnic groups," Working Papers 2007003, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2007. [Downloadable!]
  5. George Messinis & Nilss Olekalns, 2007. "Skills Mismatch and Returns to Training in Australia:Some New Evidence," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 997, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
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