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Heaven knows I'm miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction

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  • Alan Piper

Abstract

Recently the supply of young graduates entering the UK labour market has undergone a sharp increase. A possible consequence of this is an increase in the number of individuals who are overeducated for the jobs that they do subsequent to participating in higher education. Using British panel data and dynamic panel analysis, I demonstrate that overeducation amongst the young has increased, and that the overeducated are less satisfied with life than their peers who are not overeducated. This result appears to fade over time, with more recently overeducated individuals being both more common and less dissatisfied with life, consistent with the notion that relative effects and comparisons are important for life satisfaction.

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  • Alan Piper, 2015. "Heaven knows I'm miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 677-692, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:23:y:2015:i:6:p:677-692
    DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2013.870981
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    Cited by:

    1. Alan Piper, 2015. "Europe’s Capital Cities and the Happiness Penalty: An Investigation Using the European Social Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 103-126, August.
    2. Piper, Alan, 2021. "Temps dip deeper: Temporary employment and the midlife nadir in human well-being," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    3. Ahmed Lahsen, Amina & Piper, Alan T. & Thiele, Ida-Anna, 2020. "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, and the Labour Market: Overeducation, Gender, Income and Life Satisfaction. Panel evidence from Korea," MPRA Paper 100616, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Carmen Voces & Miguel Caínzos, 2021. "Overeducation as Status Inconsistency: Effects on Job Satisfaction, Subjective Well-Being and the Image of Social Stratification," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 979-1010, February.
    5. Lahsen, Amina. A & Piper, Alan T., 2018. "Property Rights and Intellectual Property Protection, GDP growth and Well-Being in Latin America," MPRA Paper 90034, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Bertermann, Alexander & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2023. "More education does make you happier - unless you are unemployed," DICE Discussion Papers 406, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    7. Piper, Alan, 2013. "A Note on Modelling Dynamics in Happiness Estimations," MPRA Paper 49364, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Piper, Alan T., 2014. "The Benefits, Challenges and Insights of a Dynamic Panel assessment of Life Satisfaction," MPRA Paper 59556, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Alan Piper, 2019. "An Investigation into the Reported Closing of the Nicaraguan Gender Gap," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 1391-1413, August.
    10. Seamus McGuinness & Konstantinos Pouliakas & Paul Redmond, 2018. "Skills Mismatch: Concepts, Measurement And Policy Approaches," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 985-1015, September.
    11. Bertermann, Alexander & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2023. "More Education Does Make You Happier – Unless You Are Unemployed," IZA Discussion Papers 16454, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. P. Kler & G. Leeves & S. Shankar, 2015. "Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself: Perceptions of Job Security in Australia After the Global Financial Crisis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 753-769, September.
    13. Piper, Alan T., 2018. "Adult life satisfaction: largely (though not wholly) contemporaneous? A System General Method of Moments dynamic panel analysis," MPRA Paper 85601, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Piper, Alan T., 2014. "Sliding down the U-shape? An investigation of the age-well-being relationship, with a focus on young adults," MPRA Paper 55819, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Petya Ilieva-Trichkova & Pepka Boyadjieva, 2021. "The Fragile Axes of Life: A Capability Approach Perspective towards Graduates’ Education–Job Mismatches and Subjective Well-Being," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    16. Alexander Bertermann & Daniel A. Kamhöfer & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch, 2023. "More Education Does Make You Happier – Unless You Are Unemployed," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1192, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    17. Piper, Alan T., 2012. "A Happiness Test of Human Capital Theory," MPRA Paper 43496, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Carmen Voces & Miguel Caínzos, 2022. "The Political Significance of Overeducation: Status Inconsistency, Attitudes towards the Political System and Political Participation in a High-Overeducation Context," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, August.
    19. Alan Piper, 2018. "Adult life satisfaction largely (though not wholly) contemporaneous," Discussion Papers 028, Europa-Universität Flensburg, International Institute of Management.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • A2 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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