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The educational system – causing both skills shortages and low youth labour participation?

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Abstract

The educational system is perhaps the most important feature for labour market entry. During the last decades huge investments have been made at different levels in this system, the Knowledge lift and a doubling of the number of students in tertiary education are examples, but what are the effects of these investments? The age of labour market entry has risen dramatically since the 1990s and in particular among those without fulfilled secondary schooling. In the paper I analyse the educational system in Sweden, mainly from secondary sources, in three dimensions – in terms of quality, efficiency and relevance. These are seen as essential in order to deliver both competence to businesses and to give young people opportunities in the labour market. Because of deficiencies in all three dimensions: foremost lack of quality at primary and secondary level, which is visible at PISA-tests, lack of efficiency at secondary and tertiary level that is visible when we measure examination frequency and graduation age, and lastly lack of relevance which is mostly notable in the vocational training.

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  • Malm Lindberg, Henrik, 2015. "The educational system – causing both skills shortages and low youth labour participation?," Ratio Working Papers 252, The Ratio Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0252
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    1. 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.
    2. Barro, Robert J & Lee, Jong-Wha, 2001. "International Data on Educational Attainment: Updates and Implications," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 541-563, July.
    3. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective: Corrigendum," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 767-767, September.
    4. Johansson, Mats & Katz, Katarina, 2007. "Wage differences between women and men in Sweden - the impact of skill mismatch," Working Paper Series 2007:13, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    5. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    6. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 34-92, March.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Skills; Unemployment; Labour market entry; Quality; Efficiency; Relevance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

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