IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i2p619-d308754.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Empirical Study on Distance Education and Job Match

Author

Listed:
  • Fengliang Li

    (Institution of Education, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Liang Wang

    (Institution of Education, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing 100084, China)

Abstract

Job match has always been the focus of educational research. However, current empirical studies are limited to the analysis of face-to-face education, and there’s no empirical study focusing on the job match of distance education. To fill the gap in this research field, this study analyzes the distance learners in China to demonstrate the relationship between distance education and job match by using the data from a nationwide household survey. The empirical results involve two significant findings. Firstly, distance learners and face-to-face learners have no significant difference in job match. This study attempts to explain this with the human capital theory, that is, distance learners and face-to-face learners have no difference in obtaining their specific human capital, so they both prefer to work on a position characterized by job match. Secondly, job mismatch has no significant negative effect on the income of distance learners. This study attempts to explain this with the screening theory, that is, though distance education would improve the learners’ specific human capital, it still acts as a diploma signal, to some extent, in China, thus making it impossible for the specific human capital obtained by distance learners to transform into a superiority in income.

Suggested Citation

  • Fengliang Li & Liang Wang, 2020. "An Empirical Study on Distance Education and Job Match," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:619-:d:308754
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/2/619/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/2/619/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robst, John, 2007. "Education and job match: The relatedness of college major and work," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 397-407, August.
    2. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2003. "Fifty Years of Mincer Earnings Regressions," NBER Working Papers 9732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Heijke, Hans & Meng, Christoph & Ris, Catherine, 2003. "Fitting to the job: the role of generic and vocational competencies in adjustment and performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 215-229, April.
    4. Arabsheibani, Gholamreza, 1989. "The wiles test revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 361-364.
    5. Neuman, Shoshana & Ziderman, Adrian, 1991. "Vocational schooling, occupational matching, and labor market earnings in Israel," Policy Research Working Paper Series 683, The World Bank.
    6. David J. Deming & Noam Yuchtman & Amira Abulafi & Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(3), pages 778-806, March.
    7. Miller, Paul W & Volker, Paul A, 1984. "The Screening Hypothesis: An Application of the Wiles Test," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(1), pages 121-127, January.
    8. John Robst, 2007. "Education, College Major, and Job Match: Gender Differences in Reasons for Mismatch," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 159-175.
    9. Heijke, Hans & Meng, Christoph & Ris, Catherine, 2003. "Fitting to the job: the role of generic and vocational competencies in adjustment and performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 215-229, April.
    10. Chung, Yue-Ping, 1990. "Educated mis-employment in Hong Kong: Earnings effects of employment in unmatched fields of work," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 343-350, December.
    11. Shoshana Neuman & Adrian Ziderman, 1991. "Vocational Schooling, Occupational Matching, and Labor Market Earnings in Israel," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(2), pages 256-281.
    12. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    13. Norton Grubb, W., 1997. "The returns to education in the sub-baccalaureate labor market, 1984-1990," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 231-245, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Saida Affouneh & Zuheir N. Khlaif & Daniel Burgos & Soheil Salha, 2021. "Virtualization of Higher Education during COVID-19: A Successful Case Study in Palestine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.

    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. Catherine Béduwé & Jean-François Giret, 2011. "Mismatch of vocational graduates : what penalty on French labour market," Post-Print halshs-00738007, HAL.
    2. Fanti, Lucrezia & Guarascio, Dario & Tubiana, Matteo, 2019. "Skill Gap, Mismatch, and the Dynamics of Italian Companies’ Productivity," MPRA Paper 95694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Boudarbat, Brahim & Chernoff, Victor, 2009. "The Determinants of Education-Job Match among Canadian University Graduates," IZA Discussion Papers 4513, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. 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).
    5. Humburg, M. & van der Velden, R.K.W., 2014. "Skills and the graduate recruitment process: Evidence from two discrete choice experiments," ROA Research Memorandum 002, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    6. Jacek Liwiński & Francesco Pastore, 2021. "Are School-Provided Skills Useful at Work? Results of the Wiles Test," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(1), pages 72-97, February.
    7. Mireille Bruyère, 2012. "Les rôles de la formation initiale et de l'expérience dans la hiérarchie des salaires des jeunes," Post-Print halshs-00835948, HAL.
    8. Neuman, Shoshana & Ziderman, Adrian, 2003. "Can vocational education improve the wages of minorities and disadvantaged groups?: The case of Israel," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 421-432, August.
    9. Humburg, Martin & van der Velden, Rolf, 2015. "Skills and the graduate recruitment process: Evidence from two discrete choice experiments," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-41.
    10. Simona Iammarino & Elisabetta Marinelli, 2012. "Education-Job (Mis)Matching And Interregional Migration: Italian University Graduates’ Transition To Work," Working Papers 8, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised Sep 2012.
    11. Satinder Singh & Jajati K. Parida, 2022. "Employment and Earning Differentials Among Vocationally Trained Youth: Evidence from field studies in Punjab and Haryana in India," Millennial Asia, , vol. 13(1), pages 142-172, April.
    12. Heijke, J.A.M. & Meng, C.M., 2006. "The effects of higher education programme characteristics on allocation and performance of the graduates: a European view," ROA Research Memorandum 4E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    13. Guo, Dong & Wang, Anyi, 2020. "Is vocational education a good alternative to low-performing students in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    14. Sandner, Malte & Yükselen, Ipek, 2024. "Unraveling the Gender Wage Gap: Exploring Early Career Patterns among University Graduates," IZA Discussion Papers 17293, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Verbruggen, M. & van Emmerik, H. & van Gils, A.E.J. & Meng, C.M. & de Grip, A., 2015. "Does early-career underemployment impact future career success? : a path dependency perspective," Research Memorandum 023, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    16. Heijke Hans & Meng Christoph, 2006. "The effects of higher education programme characteristics on allocation and performance of the graduates: a European view," ROA Research Memorandum 005, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    17. Jason Dean, 2018. "Does it matter if immigrants work in jobs related to their education?," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-42, December.
    18. Brahim Boudarbat & Victor Chernoff, 2012. "Education--job match among recent Canadian university graduates," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(18), pages 1923-1926, December.
    19. Fatma El-Hamidi, 2006. "General or Vocational Schooling? Evidence on School Choice, Returns, and 'Sheepskin' Effects from Egypt 1998," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 157-176.
    20. Othman Joumady & Catherine Ris, 2005. "Performance in European higher education: A non-parametric production frontier approach," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 189-205.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:619-:d:308754. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.