Are Over-educated People Insiders or Outsiders? A Case of Job Search Methods and Over-education in UK. ESRI WP258, September 2008

There is substantial empirical evidence that over-education seems to be a persistent rather than transient phenomenon (Dolton and Vignoles, 2000: 179, Frenette, 2004: 29, McGuinness and Wooden, 2007: 1, Sloane et al., 1999: 1437, Smoorenburg and Velden, 2000: 207). Furthermore, it has been established that some fields of study lead significantly more often than others to over-educated jobs (Frenette, 2004: 29, McGuinness, 2003: 1943, Ortiz and Kucel, 2008). That is, pursuing some fields of study lead to a higher probability of obtaining a job which requires a lower educational qualification than the one actually possessed. The relationship between over-education and field of study has attracted much attention, with studies indicating that over-education is less frequently observed in fields of study that provide access to narrowly defined labour markets, which are in turn determined by a country’s general labor market structure as well as its educational system. As a consequence, we expect that the pursuit of employment upon completion of different fields of study will result in differences in the ease/difficulty of finding an appropriate job

Qualitative social differentiation in tertiary education in Spain

[cat] En aquest treball, s'estudia si la hipòtesi de la desigualtat efectivament mantinguda “effectively maintained inequality” es cumpleix a Espanya. Es postula que en les transicions terciàries a Espanya, les influències dels pares no es manifesten tant a través de la probabilitat de fer la transició, sinó més aviat a través de les diferències qualitatives associades a aquesta transició en termes de les qualitats dels programes educatius. Analitzem dues característiques qualitatives dels estudis universitaris: la durada del programa i el seu prestigi acadèmic. Identifiquem per a quins individus la influència parental és més important en cada cas.[eng] In this paper, we study whether the Effectively Maintained Inequality Hypothesis occurs in Spain. We hypothesize that at tertiary transitions in Spain, parental influences manifest not so much through the likelihood of making that transition, but rather through the qualitative differences associated to this transition in terms of educational program qualities. We analyze two qualitative characteristics of the university studies: the length of the program and its academic prestige. We identify for which individuals parental background matters the most in each case

Job Satisfaction of Spanish University Graduates

This paper investigates the determinants of job satisfaction of university graduates in Spain. We base our analysis on Locke"s discrepancy theory [Locke (1969)] and decompose subjective evaluation of job characteristics into surplus and deficit levels. We also study the importance of overeducation and over-skilling on job satisfaction. We use REFLEX data, a survey of university graduates. We conclude that job satisfaction is mostly determined by the subjective evaluation of intrinsic job characteristics, with an asymmetric impact of surpluses and deficits. Over-skilling is much more important than over-education in explaining the job satisfaction of university graduates, although the latter is also significant

Over-education and childcare time

Research shows that over-education has negative effects on individuals in terms of their wage and job satisfaction. In this paper, we study the intergenerational implications of over-education via childcare time. We analyze whether being over-educated affects the time mothers devote to take care of their children. We use the American Time Use Survey from 2004 to 2017. We find that over-educated mothers devote less time to primary childcare than they would do were they matched. The effect of being a college graduate mother on primary childcare time during weekdays is significantly lower when she is over-educated. Results suggest that being over-educated is not a deliberate choice prioritizing family over career

Graduate labor mismatch in Poland

This paper investigates education-labor mismatch for university graduates in Poland using the HEGESCO survey. Mismatch refers to the level of discord between the job performed by an individual and its education and skills. We evaluate three different dimensions of mismatch: vertical (under-/overeducation), horizontal (wrong field of study for the job performed), and skills mismatch (under-/overskilled). We discuss our results in the light of the large increase in the demand for tertiary education as well as in the number of tertiary education institutions that occurred in Poland after the transition process from communism to market economy

Entrepreneurial skills and wage employment

Promotion of entrepreneurial skills among the population is often considered as an adequate policy to enhance job creation and economic growth. However, neither the definition of entrepreneurial skills, nor the costs and benefits of such a policy are clear. Our aim is to check whether the benefits of entrepreneurial skills extent beyond self-employment. We use a sample of higher education graduates from Spain, from the year 2000 interviewed in 2005 (REFLEX survey). We denote entrepreneurial skills as those competencies that enhance the likelihood of self-employment. Then we analyze whether they are rewarded in wage employment. We find that alertness to new opportunities, ability to mobilize others and knowledge of other fields are the competencies that enhance self-employment in Spain. Yet, these skills are not rewarded in a salaried job. Therefore, benefits of policies fostering entrepreneurial skills do not extend to wage employment in Spain

Overeducation and childcare time

Research shows that parental employment and education status affect the amount of parental childcare time, which is a fundamental determinant of children's outcomes. In this paper, we study whether being overeducated - working in a job that requires less education than the level of education acquired - is related to the time parents devote to their children. We set two main hypotheses. First, overeducation might lead to more childcare time if being overeducated is the result of the individual prioritizing family over career. Second, overeducation might lead to less childcare time if overeducation is the result of lower ability. We estimate time use equations using the American Time Use Survey from 2004 to 2019. We find that overeducated parents devote less time to childcare than matched parents, especially in the weekend sample. Our results suggest that overeducation is not a deliberate choice prioritizing family over career. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on the implications of being overeducated on childcare

Why do tertiary education graduates regret their study program? A comparison between Spain and the Netherlands

In this paper we investigate the determinants of regret of study program for tertiary education graduates in Spain and the Netherlands. These two countries differ in their educational system in terms of the tracking structure in their secondary education and the strength of their education-labor market linkages in tertiary education. Therefore, by comparing Spain and the Netherlands, we aim at learning about the consequences that the two educational systems might have on the regret of study program in tertiary education. Basing on the psychological literature on regret, we derive some expectations on the determinants of regret of study program. Results reveal that both, education track and education-labor mismatch of tertiary education, are important determinants of the likelihood of program regret. Results allow us to derive some policy recommendations on the tertiary education system

Entrepreneurial skills and over-education five years later. A comparison between Spain and the Netherlands

[cat] El fenòmen de la sobre-educació és freqüent i persistent a molts països. En aquest article estudiem el paper de les habilitats emprenedores en evitar la sobre-educació a la primera feina, i en sortir d’una situació de sobre-educació cinc anys després. Comparem els resultats d’Espanya i Holanda, dos països que difereixen en el seu sistema educatiu i mercat de treball. Els resultats mostren que les habilitats emprenedores ajuden a evitar i/o sortir de la sobre-educació només a Espanya, on el sistema educatiu és més flexible i menys vinculat amb el mercat de treball. En general, els nostres resultats recolzen les polítiques que promocionen el desenvolupament d’habilitats emprenedores al sistema educatiu espanyol.[eng] Over-education has been demonstrated to be frequent and persistent across countries. We study whether entrepreneurial skills are a competency that helps tertiary education graduates to obtain a good job match. We analyze two possibilities: the role of entrepreneurial skills in avoiding over-education in the first job, and in exiting over-education in their early career. We do the analysis for Spain and the Netherlands, two countries that differ significantly in the degree of tracking in their educational system and the education-labor market linkages. We find that entrepreneurial skills help avoiding over-education in the first job and exiting from over-education only in Spain. Entrepreneurial skills do not seem to affect the probability of over-education in the Netherlands, where the education system is less flexible. Overall, our results give support to those policies promoting the development of entrepreneurial skills in the Spanish education system