IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rug/rugwps/03-169.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of education on job satisfaction in the first job

Author

Listed:
  • E. VERHOFSTADT
  • E. OMEY

Abstract

Relying on survey data for Flemish 23 year old workers, we estimate three ordinal regression models to clear out the determinants of job satisfaction in the first job. Special attention goes to the influence of education. The results indicate that higher educated people seem more satisfied than lower educated people because they get a better job. When we control for all characteristics of the job, a negative relationship shows up, with higher educated people being less happy about their first job. Our results also suggest that giving young employees the possibility to use their skills in a varied job contributes strongly to job satisfaction. The relationship between educational mismatch and job satisfaction is ambiguous. Overeducation has a clear negative impact on job satisfaction, but for undereducation we obtain different results for men and women. In contrast to existing literature we also find a gender effect for young workers and a positive impact of working in a large company. We observe no impact of the occupational status of the parents nor of the characteristics of the employment contract.

Suggested Citation

  • E. Verhofstadt & E. Omey, 2003. "The impact of education on job satisfaction in the first job," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 03/169, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    • Handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:03/169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_03_169.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Donna & McIntosh, Steven, 1998. "If you're happy and you know it...job satisfaction in the low wage service sector," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20249, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew Oswald, 2000. "The Rising Well-Being of the Young," NBER Chapters, in: Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries, pages 289-328, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Donna Brown & Steven McIntosh, 2003. "Job satisfaction in the low wage service sector," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(10), pages 1241-1254.
    4. Groot, Wim & Maassen van den Brink, Henriette, 1999. "Job satisfaction and preference drift1," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 363-367, 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. Kentaro Asai & Thomas Breda & Audrey Rain & Lucile Romanello & Marc Sangnier, 2020. "Education, skills and skill mismatch. A review and some new evidence based on the PIAAC survey," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-02514746, HAL.
    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. D. Van den Poel, 2003. "Predicting Mail-Order Repeat Buying. Which Variables Matter?," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(3), pages 371-404.
    4. Michael J. Handel & Alexandria Valerio & Maria Laura Sánchez Puerta, 2016. "Accounting for Mismatch in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 24906.
    5. Vichet Sam, 2018. "Education-job mismatches and their impacts on job satisfaction: An analysis among university graduates in Cambodia," Working Papers hal-01839463, HAL.
    6. Ricardo Pagán-Rodríguez, 2015. "Disability, Training and Job Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 865-885, July.
    7. Mariachiara Barzotto, 2024. "Educational (mis)match in the context of new manufacturing: A qualitative comparative analysis study in five European countries," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 2116-2138, April.
    8. Cosima Obst, 2022. "Job Satisfaction and Training Investments," CEPA Discussion Papers 47, Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
    9. Dieter Verhaest & Eddy Omey, 2006. "The Impact of Overeducation and its Measurement," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 77(3), pages 419-448, July.
    10. SAM, Vichet, 2018. "Education-job mismatches and their impacts on job satisfaction: An analysis among university graduates in Cambodia," MPRA Paper 87928, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Jul 2018.

    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. Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Sousa-Poza, Andres A., 2000. "Well-being at work: a cross-national analysis of the levels and determinants of job satisfaction," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 517-538, November.
    2. Melanie K. Jones & Richard J. Jones & Paul L. Latreille & Peter J. Sloane, 2009. "Training, Job Satisfaction, and Workplace Performance in Britain: Evidence from WERS 2004," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(s1), pages 139-175, March.
    3. Michael A. Shields & Stephen Wheatley Price, "undated". "Racial Harassment, Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Quit: Evidence from the British Nursing Profession," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 01/2, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    4. Fabra, M. Eugenia & Camisón, Cesar, 2009. "Direct and indirect effects of education on job satisfaction: A structural equation model for the Spanish case," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 600-610, October.
    5. J Taylor & S Bradley & A N Nguyen, 2003. "Relative pay and job satisfaction: some new evidence," Working Papers 541451, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    6. Vicente Royuela & Jordi Suriñach, 2013. "Quality of Work and Aggregate Productivity," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 37-66, August.
    7. J Taylor & S Bradley & A N Nguyen, 2003. "Job autonomy and job satisfaction: new evidence," Working Papers 541528, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    8. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2008. "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1733-1749, April.
    9. Ofer Azar, 2009. "Incentives and service quality in the restaurant industry: the tipping-service puzzle," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(15), pages 1917-1927.
    10. repec:lan:wpaper:1021 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Volkan Yeniaras & Tugra Nazli Akarsu, 2017. "Religiosity and Life Satisfaction: A Multi-dimensional Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1815-1840, December.
    12. Hussain Naeem Author_Email: & Ilham Sentosa & Hadi Nejatian & Shishi Kumar Piaralal, 2011. "Job Satisfaction Of Civil Servants (An Evidence From The Republic Of Maldives)," 2nd International Conference on Business and Economic Research (2nd ICBER 2011) Proceeding 2011-256, Conference Master Resources.
    13. Giorgio Piccitto & Hans M. A. Schadee & Gabriele Ballarino, 2023. "Job Satisfaction and Gender in Italy: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 775-793, October.
    14. Moayyad AL-FAWAEER & Mousa KHAIREDDIN, 2020. "The Impact Of Quality Management(Qm) On Job Satisfaction Across Knowledge Sharing As A Moderating Variable In Greater Amman Governorate," CrossCultural Management Journal, Fundația Română pentru Inteligența Afacerii, Editorial Department, issue 1, pages 7-16, July.
    15. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2004. "Well-being over time in Britain and the USA," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1359-1386, July.
    16. Romina Giuliano & Benoît Mahy & François Ryckx & Guillaume Vermeylen, 2024. "Overeducation, Overskilling and Job Satisfaction in Europe: The Moderating Role of Employment Contracts," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2024003, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    17. Anthea Long, 2005. "Happily Ever After? A Study of Job Satisfaction in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 303-321, December.
    18. Rafael Muñoz de Bustillo & Enrique Fernández-Macías & José-Ignacio Antón & Fernando Esteve, 2011. "Measuring More than Money," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14072.
    19. Husam Sadig, 2014. "Determinants Of Subjective Job Satisfaction In Developing Countries: Contrasting Managers And Regular Employees," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 8(1), pages 1250-1255.
    20. Getinet A. Haile, 2015. "Workplace Job Satisfaction in Britain: Evidence from Linked Employer–Employee Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(3), pages 225-242, September.
    21. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2002. "International Comparisons of Trends in Economic Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 349-382, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:rug:rugwps:03/169. 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: Nathalie Verhaeghe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugbe.html .

    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.