IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ratioi/0252.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The educational system – causing both skills shortages and low youth labour participation?

Author

Abstract

The educational system is perhaps the most important feature for labour market entry. During the last decades huge investments have been made at different levels in this system, the Knowledge lift and a doubling of the number of students in tertiary education are examples, but what are the effects of these investments? The age of labour market entry has risen dramatically since the 1990s and in particular among those without fulfilled secondary schooling. In the paper I analyse the educational system in Sweden, mainly from secondary sources, in three dimensions – in terms of quality, efficiency and relevance. These are seen as essential in order to deliver both competence to businesses and to give young people opportunities in the labour market. Because of deficiencies in all three dimensions: foremost lack of quality at primary and secondary level, which is visible at PISA-tests, lack of efficiency at secondary and tertiary level that is visible when we measure examination frequency and graduation age, and lastly lack of relevance which is mostly notable in the vocational training.

Suggested Citation

  • Malm Lindberg, Henrik, 2015. "The educational system – causing both skills shortages and low youth labour participation?," Ratio Working Papers 252, The Ratio Institute.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ratio.se/app/uploads/2015/01/hl_education_skills_252.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duncan, Greg J. & Hoffman, Saul D., 1981. "The incidence and wage effects of overeducation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 75-86, February.
    2. Barro, Robert J & Lee, Jong-Wha, 2001. "International Data on Educational Attainment: Updates and Implications," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 541-563, July.
    3. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective: Corrigendum," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 767-767, September.
    4. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    5. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 34-92, March.
    6. Johansson, Mats & Katz, Katarina, 2007. "Wage differences between women and men in Sweden - the impact of skill mismatch," Working Paper Series 2007:13, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    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. G. S. F. Bruno & M. T. Choudhry & E. Marelli & M. Signorelli, 2014. "Youth Unemployment: Key Determinants and the Impact of Crises," AIEL Series in Labour Economics, in: Miguel Ángel Malo & Dario Sciulli (ed.), Disadvantaged Workers, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 121-148, Springer.
    2. Emily A. Beam & Joshua Hyman & Caroline Theoharides, 2020. "The Relative Returns to Education, Experience, and Attractiveness for Young Workers," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 391-428.
    3. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    4. Castelló-Climent, Amparo & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop, 2013. "Mass education or a minority well educated elite in the process of growth: The case of India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 303-320.
    5. John M. Nunley & Adam Pugh & Nicholas Romero & Richard Alan Seals, Jr., 2014. "Unemployment, Underemployment, and Employment Opportunities: Results from a Correspondence Audit of the Labor Market for College Graduates," Auburn Economics Working Paper Series auwp2014-04, Department of Economics, Auburn University.
    6. Jean-Marc Robin & Costas Meghir & Christian Dustmann & Jerome Adda, 2013. "Career Progression, Economic Downturns, and Skills," 2013 Meeting Papers 993, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Hector Espinoza & Stefan Speckesser, 2019. "A Comparison of Earnings Related to Higher Level Vocational/Technical and Academic Education," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 502, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    8. OSHIO Takashi & INAGAKI Seiichi, 2014. "Does Initial Job Status Affect Midlife Outcomes and Mental Health? Evidence from a survey in Japan," Discussion papers 14025, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    9. Esther Mirjam Girsberger & Miriam Rinawi & Matthias Krapf, 2018. "Wages and employment: The role of occupational skills," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0153, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    10. Oleg Badunenko & Daniel Henderson & Romain Houssa, 2014. "Significant drivers of growth in Africa," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 339-354, December.
    11. Aspøy, Tove Mogstad & Nyen, Torgeir, 2017. "Short-term benefits, long-term harm? Alternative training to apprenticeships in Norway," International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, vol. 4(4), pages 306-324.
    12. Michael S. Delgado & Daniel J. Henderson & Christopher F. Parmeter, 2014. "Does Education Matter for Economic Growth?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 76(3), pages 334-359, June.
    13. Eric A. Hanushek & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann & Lei Zhang, 2017. "General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 48-87.
    14. Korpi, Tomas & Tåhlin, Michael, 2009. "Educational mismatch, wages, and wage growth: Overeducation in Sweden, 1974-2000," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 183-193, April.
    15. Céline Gasquet & Valérie Roux, 2006. "Les sept premières années de vie active des jeunes non diplômés : la place des mesures publiques pour l'emploi," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 400(1), pages 17-43.
    16. Castelló-Climent, Amparo & Hidalgo-Cabrillana, Ana, 2012. "The role of educational quality and quantity in the process of economic development," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 391-409.
    17. Clark, Damon & Fahr, René, 2001. "The Promise of Workplace Training for Non-College-Bound Youth: Theory and Evidence from German Apprenticeship," IZA Discussion Papers 378, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Szirmai, Adam & Verspagen, Bart, 2015. "Manufacturing and economic growth in developing countries, 1950–2005," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 46-59.
    19. Steffen Müller & Renate Neubaeumer, 2018. "Size of training firms – the role of firms, luck, and ability in young workers’ careers," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(5), pages 658-673, August.
    20. Stijn Baert & Frank W. Heiland & Sanders Korenman, 2016. "Native-Immigrant Gaps in Educational and School-to-Work Transitions in the 2nd Generation: The Role of Gender and Ethnicity," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 159-186, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Skills; Unemployment; Labour market entry; Quality; Efficiency; Relevance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:ratioi:0252. 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: Martin Korpi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ratiose.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.