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Return to college education revisited: Is relevance relevant?

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  • Yakusheva, Olga

Abstract

This study examines whether the size of the college earnings premium varies depending on the quality of the match between an individual's degree field and his/her occupation. The study uses the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to obtain a new measure of the quality of occupational match for a sample of 2268 young adults with post-secondary degrees from the restricted use High School and Beyond (1980/92) data. The study finds that people whose occupations better match their degree fields earn significantly higher returns to post-secondary schooling. This result is robust to controlling for an extensive set of pre-existing differences among individuals, and to accounting for differences in earnings across post-secondary degree fields.

Suggested Citation

  • Yakusheva, Olga, 2010. "Return to college education revisited: Is relevance relevant?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1125-1142, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:29:y:2010:i:6:p:1125-1142
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    1. Doan, Tinh & Stevens, Philip, 2011. "Labour market returns to higher education in Vietnam," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 5, pages 1-21.
    2. 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).
    3. Andersson, Roland & Nabavi Larijani, Pardis & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2013. "The impact of vocational education and training on income in Sweden," Working Paper Series 13/4, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    4. 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.
    5. Fernando Rios-Avila & Fabiola Saavedra Caballero, 2019. "It Pays to Study for the Right Job: Exploring the Causes and Consequences of Education-Occupation Job Mismatch," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_922, Levy Economics Institute.
    6. Hadavand, Aboozar & Thomas, Sarah M & Almasi, Pooya & Gharehgozli, Orkideh, 2019. "Relevance of Education to Occupation: A New Empirical Approach Based on College Courses," OSF Preprints 8ysgz, Center for Open Science.
    7. Jiang, Shengjun & Guo, Yilan, 2022. "Reasons for college major-job mismatch and labor market outcomes: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Manuel, Nick, 2024. "Does the labour market value field of study specific knowledge? An alignment score based approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    9. Liu, Liqun & Neilson, William S., 2011. "High scores but low skills," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 507-516, June.
    10. Shengjun Jiang, 2024. "Reasons for college major-job mismatch and subsequent job mobility and earnings growth," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 1275-1301, September.
    11. Hugh Cassidy & Amanda Gaulke, 2024. "The increasing penalty to occupation‐education mismatch," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(2), pages 607-632, April.
    12. Aepli, Manuel, 2019. "Technological change and occupation mobility: A task-based approach to horizontal mismatch," GLO Discussion Paper Series 361, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Fran Stewart & Minkyu Yeom & Alice Stewart, 2020. "STEM and Soft Occupational Competencies: Analyzing the Value of Strategic Regional Human Capital," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(4), pages 356-371, November.

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