IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabrs/v55y2021i1d10.1186_s12651-021-00297-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mapping the (mis)match of university degrees in the graduate labor market

Author

Listed:
  • Manuel Salas-Velasco

    (University of Granada)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the scarce literature on the topic of horizontal education-job mismatch in the labor market for graduates of universities. Field-of-study mismatch or horizontal mismatch occurs when university graduates, trained in a particular field, work in another field at their formal qualification level. The data used in the analysis come from the first nationally representative survey of labor insertion of recent university graduates in Spain. By estimating a multinomial logistic regression, we are able to identify the match status 4 years after graduation based on self-assessments. We find a higher likelihood of horizontal mismatch among graduates of Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Pharmacy, and Languages and Literature. Only graduates in Medicine increase the probability of being adequately matched in their jobs. It may be hypothesized that horizontal mismatch is more likely among those graduates in degree fields that provide more general skills and less likely among those from degree fields providing more occupation-specific skills. Other degrees such as Business Studies, and Management and Economics Studies increase the probability of being vertically mismatched (over-educated). Vertical mismatch preserves at least some of the specific human capital gained through formal educational qualifications. However, some workers with degrees in Labor Relations and Social Work are in non-graduate positions and study areas unrelated to their studies. The paper also shows that graduates in the fields of health sciences and engineering/architecture increase the probability of achieving an education-job match after external job mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuel Salas-Velasco, 2021. "Mapping the (mis)match of university degrees in the graduate labor market," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 55(1), pages 1-23, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:55:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-021-00297-x
    DOI: 10.1186/s12651-021-00297-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s12651-021-00297-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s12651-021-00297-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hartog, Joop, 2000. "Over-education and earnings: where are we, where should we go?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 131-147, April.
    2. Kampelmann, Stephan & Rycx, François, 2012. "The impact of educational mismatch on firm productivity: Evidence from linked panel data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 918-931.
    3. Nordin, Martin & Persson, Inga & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2010. "Education-occupation mismatch: Is there an income penalty?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1047-1059, December.
    4. Allen, Jim & van der Velden, Rolf, 2001. "Educational Mismatches versus Skill Mismatches: Effects on Wages, Job Satisfaction, and On-the-Job Search," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 434-452, July.
    5. Bauer, Thomas K., 2002. "Educational mismatch and wages: a panel analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 221-229, June.
    6. Séamus McGuinness, 2006. "Overeducation in the Labour Market," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 387-418, July.
    7. Kiker, B. F. & Santos, Maria C. & de Oliveira, M. Mendes, 1997. "Overeducation and undereducation: Evidence for Portugal," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 111-125, April.
    8. Rossen Anja & Boll Christina & Wolf André, 2019. "Patterns of Overeducation in Europe: The Role of Field of Study," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-48, June.
    9. Richard R. Verdugo & Naomi Turner Verdugo, 1989. "The Impact of Surplus Schooling on Earnings: Some Additional Findings," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 24(4), pages 629-643.
    10. Dolton, Peter & Vignoles, Anna, 2000. "The incidence and effects of overeducation in the U.K. graduate labour market," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 179-198, April.
    11. Keith Bender & John Heywood, 2011. "Educational mismatch and the careers of scientists," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 253-274.
    12. Sicherman, Nachum & Galor, Oded, 1990. "A Theory of Career Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(1), pages 169-192, February.
    13. Leighton, Margaret & Speer, Jamin D., 2020. "Labor market returns to college major specificity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    14. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 972-990, October.
    15. Melline A. Somers & Sofie J. Cabus & Wim Groot & Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink, 2019. "Horizontal Mismatch Between Employment And Field Of Education: Evidence From A Systematic Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 567-603, April.
    16. Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. ""Overeducation" in the Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 101-122, April.
    17. Glenda Quintini, 2011. "Over-Qualified or Under-Skilled: A Review of Existing Literature," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 121, OECD Publishing.
    18. Patricia M. Anderson & Bruce D. Meyer, 1994. "The Extent and Consequences of Job Turnover," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(1994 Micr), pages 177-248.
    19. Michele Pellizzari & Anne Fichen, 2013. "A New Measure of Skills Mismatch: Theory and Evidence from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 153, OECD Publishing.
    20. Dieter Verhaest & Eddy Omey, 2006. "Discriminating between alternative measures of over-education," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(18), pages 2113-2120.
    21. William R. Johnson, 1978. "A Theory of Job Shopping," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(2), pages 261-277.
    22. Felix Büchel & Andries de Grip & Antje Mertens (ed.), 2003. "Overeducation in Europe," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3054.
    23. Russell W. Rumberger, 1987. "The Impact of Surplus Schooling on Productivity and Earnings," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 22(1), pages 24-50.
    24. 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.
    25. Dieter VERHAEST & Sana SELLAMI & Rolf van der VELDEN, 2017. "Differences in horizontal and vertical mismatches across countries and fields of study," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 156(1), pages 1-23, March.
    26. Abel, Jaison R. & Deitz, Richard, 2015. "Agglomeration and job matching among college graduates," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 14-24.
    27. Groot, Wim, 1993. "Overeducation and the returns to enterprise-related schooling," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 299-309, December.
    28. Sattinger, Michael, 1993. "Assignment Models of the Distribution of Earnings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 831-880, June.
    29. Kupets, Olga, 2016. "Education-job mismatch in Ukraine: Too many people with tertiary education or too many jobs for low-skilled?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 125-147.
    30. Leuven, Edwin & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 2011. "Overeducation and Mismatch in the Labor Market," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 283-326, Elsevier.
    31. 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.
    32. Hung-Lin Tao & Chia-Yu Hung, 2014. "Vertical and Horizontal Educational Mismatches of Female Graduates in Taiwan," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 28(2), pages 181-199, June.
    33. Seamus McGuinness & Konstantinos Pouliakas & Paul Redmond, 2018. "Skills Mismatch: Concepts, Measurement And Policy Approaches," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 985-1015, September.
    34. Groot, Wim & Maassen van den Brink, Henriette, 2000. "Overeducation in the labor market: a meta-analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 149-158, April.
    35. Kostas Mavromaras & Seamus McGuinness & Nigel O'Leary & Peter Sloane & Zhang Wei, 2013. "Job Mismatches and Labour Market Outcomes: Panel Evidence on University Graduates," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(286), pages 382-395, September.
    36. Kihong Park, 2018. "Vertical and horizontal mismatches and career mobility: evidence from female college graduates," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 32(2), pages 109-125, November.
    37. Francis Green & Golo Henseke, 2016. "Should governments of OECD countries worry about graduate underemployment?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 32(4), pages 514-537.
    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. Pérez Navarro, Marco Aurelio, 2021. "University graduates’ job-education mismatches in the Spanish labour market," MPRA Paper 109881, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Dr. Peter N. Khakina, 2024. "Solving Unemployment in Kenya by Integrating Education, Training and Market," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3s), pages 3331-3337, August.
    3. Sung-Tae Lee & Sun-Moon Jung, 2023. "Is Your Degree Worth It? Education-Job Transferability and Job Satisfaction of ICT Workers," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.

    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. 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.
    2. Kihong Park, 2018. "Vertical and horizontal mismatches and career mobility: evidence from female college graduates," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 32(2), pages 109-125, November.
    3. Baktash, Mehrzad B., 2023. "Overeducation, Performance Pay and Wages: Evidence from Germany," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1327, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Shujaat Farooq, 2015. "Job Mismatches in Pakistan: Is there Some Wage Penalty to Graduates?," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 147-164.
    5. Hanan Morsy & Adamon N. Mukasa, 2019. "Working Paper 326 - Youth Jobs, Skill and Educational Mismatches in Africa," Working Paper Series 2452, African Development Bank.
    6. Iñaki Iriondo & Teodosio Pérez-Amaral, 2013. "The Effect of Educational Mismatch on Wages Using European Panel Data," Working Papers 700, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    7. Rycx, François & Santosuosso, Giulia & Vermeylen, Guillaume, 2022. "The Over-Education Wage Penalty among PhD Holders: A European Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 15417, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Morsy, Hanan & Mukasa, Adamon, 2019. "Youth Jobs, Skill and Educational Mismatches in Africa," MPRA Paper 100394, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Kampelmann, Stephan & Rycx, François, 2012. "The impact of educational mismatch on firm productivity: Evidence from linked panel data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 918-931.
    10. Juan Acosta-Ballesteros & María del Pilar Osorno-del Rosal & Olga María Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2018. "Overeducation of Young Workers in Spain: How Much Does the First Job Matter? Social Indicators Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 109-139, July.
    11. Issofou Njifen & Peter Smith, 2024. "Education-Job Mismatch and Heterogeneity in the Return to Schooling: Evidence from Cameroon," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 860-887, March.
    12. Barbara Ermini & Luca Papi & Francesca Scaturro, 2017. "An Analysis of the Determinants of Over-Education Among Italian Ph.D Graduates," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 3(2), pages 167-207, July.
    13. Isabel ARAÚJO & Anabela CARNEIRO, 2023. "Educational mismatches of newly hired workers: Short‐ and medium‐term effects on wages," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(3), pages 355-383, September.
    14. Iñaki Iriondo & Teodosio Pérez-Amaral, 2013. "The Effect of Educational Mismatch on Wages Using European Panel Data," Working Papers 700, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    15. L. Cattani & G. Guidetti & G. Pedrini, 2014. "Assessing the incidence and wage effects of overeducation among Italian graduates using a new measure for educational requirements," Working Papers wp939, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    16. Sandra Nieto & Raul Ramos, 2017. "Overeducation, Skills and Wage Penalty: Evidence for Spain Using PIAAC Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 219-236, October.
    17. Mariana Olga De Santis & María Cecilia Gáname & Pedro Esteban Moncarz, 2022. "The Impact of Overeducation on Wages of Recent Economic Sciences Graduates," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 409-445, August.
    18. Berlingieri, Francesco & Erdsiek, Daniel, 2012. "How relevant is job mismatch for German graduates?," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-075, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Inmaculada Garc�a-Mainar & V�ctor M. Montuenga-G�mez, 2017. "Subjective educational mismatch and signalling in Spain," Documentos de Trabajo dt2017-03, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Zaragoza.
    20. Araújo, Isabel & Carneiro, Anabela, 2020. "Educational Mismatches of Newly Hired Workers: Short and Medium-run Effects on Wages," GLO Discussion Paper Series 668, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education-job mismatch; Higher education; Horizontal mismatch; Job turnover; Multinomial logistic regression; Spanish university degrees;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • C50 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - General

    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:spr:jlabrs:v:55:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-021-00297-x. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.