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Job congruence, academic achievement, and earnings

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  • Neumann, George
  • Olitsky, Neal
  • Robbins, Steve

Abstract

This study combines a widely held view of how earnings are related to education and job tenure (The Mincer model1) with the notion that earnings are associated with the quality of an employer-employee job match. The quality of an individual's occupational choice is measured using job congruence, a commonly-used construct in the psychometric literature. Better-matched individuals should be more productive and, as a result, have higher earnings. Previous studies were unable to address the importance of job preferences to earnings because available data do not include both job congruence and individual earnings. The Alumni Outcomes Survey, recently produced by ACT Inc., is among the first data sets to include both variables. We use these data to estimate the importance of job congruence on earnings after controlling both for job tenure and for academic achievement, measured by an individual's ACT score. Results indicate that job congruence is positively correlated with earnings, and has effects on earnings that are of almost equal magnitude with years of education.

Suggested Citation

  • Neumann, George & Olitsky, Neal & Robbins, Steve, 2009. "Job congruence, academic achievement, and earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 503-509, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:16:y:2009:i:5:p:503-509
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    5. Nicholas A. Bowman & Gregory C. Wolniak & Tricia A. Seifert & Kathleen Wise & Charles Blaich, 2023. "The Long-Term Role of Undergraduate Experiences: Predicting Intellectual and Civic Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(3), pages 379-401, May.
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    7. Roberto Pico-Saltos & David Sabando-Vera & Marcela Yonfa-Medranda & Javier Garzás & Andrés Redchuk, 2022. "Hierarchical Component Model (HCM) of Career Success and the Moderating Effect of Gender, from the Perspective of University Alumni: Multigroup Analysis and Empirical Evidence from Quevedo, Ecuador," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-25, December.

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