Skills Heterogeneity Among Graduate Workers: Real and Apparent Overeducation in the Spanish Labor Market

This paper takes account of skills heterogeneity among workers with a higher education degree and proposes a new measure to differentiate between real and apparent overeducation based on the level of cognitive skills actually achieved by the individuals. This proposal is applied to the study of the wage effects of overeducation in the Spanish labor market using data from PIAAC. The results suggest that between a quarter and a half of the graduate workers who appear to be overeducated in the Spanish labor market could be considered as being only apparently overeducated since they show a lower level of skills than that corresponding to their educational level or, alternatively, a level of cognitive skills which is commensurate with their job. Different returns are found for each group of overeducated individuals both when compared with adequately educated peers within a similar level of education (with greater wage penalties for apparently overeducated workers) and when the comparison is done with well-matched co-workers doing a similar job (with a wage premium for real overeducation but no significant returns for apparently overeducated workers). These different returns by skill levels beyond what overeducation measures implies that the market distinguishes between education and skills and that educational attainment per se does not perfectly align with acquired skills, meaning that traditional measures of overeducation would overstate the actual level of skills mismatch in the labor market.     

Overeducation of Young Workers in Spain: How Much Does the First Job Matter? Social Indicators Research

This article contributes to recent overeducation literature on the impact of an initial education mismatch on workers’ future careers. Specifically, using the 2009 ad-hoc module of the Spanish Labour Force Survey, we quantify the differences in the probability of overeducation depending on the quality of individuals’ first match. To do this, we apply an extension of the recursive bivariate probit model, which allows potential endogeneity problems to be taken into account, as well as a dissimilar impact of the initial match for workers with different educational attainment. The results indicate that overeducation is a trap, since young workers who were mismatched in their first job are 40.2 percentage points more likely to be overeducated in a later one than those who were not. When decomposing this difference in two parts, one related to the pure effect of the initial mismatch and another one related to workers’ characteristics, we conclude that the pure effect is more important, and it depends on educational attainment.     

The Impact of Overeducation and its Measurement

The central focus of this article is the influence of the applied measure when the impact of overeducation is analyzed. For a database of Flemish school leavers, four alternative measures of overeducation are related to job satisfaction, mobility, training participation and wages. The magnitude and significance of the effects diverge between these measures. When attained education is controlled for, overeducated workers are less satisfied, more mobile, participate less in training and earn less than adequately educated workers. When required education is controlled for, no robust results are found for job satisfaction and training participation. Overeducated workers earn more than adequately educated colleagues, but have a higher turnover rate. We have little clear results with respect to undereducation. Caution is thus recommended for the interpretation of empirical results with respect to the impact of over- and undereducation.     

中国城镇劳动力市场中的过度教育——测量改进与收入效应

过度教育是否会造成收入惩罚?这是国际教育匹配领域长期争论的议题。本研究聚焦中国城镇劳动力市场,使用2003—2015年中国综合社会调查(CGSS)数据分析过度教育的收入效应,最终得到以下结论:第一,通过改进教育匹配的测量方法,发现我国城镇劳动力市场过度教育的发生比例约为35%。第二,通过线性回归发现过度教育会造成收入惩罚,并且这种收入惩罚持续存在。第三,将历年高考录取率和各省专业技术人员比例作为工具变量的分析,进一步证明了过度教育的收入惩罚效应。以上结论意味着,通过宏观政策促进教育和职业匹配,对于实现更加充分的劳动力就业具有重要现实意义。     

A Task-Based Indicator for Labour Market Mismatch

This article uses a task-based approach to measure labour market mismatch and to study the wage effects of mismatch. We propose a new indicator—cognitive mismatch—and contrast it with the commonly used overqualification indicator. We argue that considering the tasks performed in each occupation captures more adequately the complexity of job requirements and tackles the major drawbacks of the existing approaches measuring mismatch. Using rich administrative data from the German Sample of Integrated Labour Market Biographies, we find that 4.8% of the total employment episodes are matched in terms of qualification but mismatched in terms of the tasks performed. Fixed Effects models show that the largest wage loss occurs in cases of mismatch in both education level and tasks performed at work. We conclude that each indicator is capturing different facets of mismatch and that they should be used complementarily in labour market mismatch analyses.

     

Women’s Well-Being in Iran: Territorial Analysis Using a Multidimensional Approach

This paper employs a multidimensional index for assessing women’s well-being in Iranian provinces using demographic and health survey macro data. Besides economic status as a traditional dimension for objective well-being, other factors such as health, education, risk, and technology as well as self-reported life satisfaction and happiness (psychological well-being) have been included as non-material well-being dimensions. We found that the values of women’s well-being are distributed unequally across the provinces. Southern provinces demonstrate the worst performances and central provinces have the best. Generally, Iranian women are in poor condition in terms of economic variables (e.g. income and participation in the job market), psychological well-being (life satisfaction), HIV literacy, use of the internet, and access to mass media. On the other hand, in recent years, they have made significant progress in education (such as the rate of literacy, high school degree), and health (safe pregnancy care and nutritional supplements).     

A Multidimensional Approach to Precarious Employment Among Young Workers in EU-28 Countries

This article uses a new multidimensional indicator to measure precariousness among young workers across all EU-28 countries. This indicator measures both the incidence and intensity of precariousness. The analysis has involved five dimensions: wages, type of contract, type of working day, disempowerment, and job insecurity. Our database is the European Union Labour Force Survey for the period 2009–2016. The main indication of precariousness is low wages. We find high rates of precariousness for Mediterranean countries (because of low wages and temporary contracts), Denmark (low wages), and the Netherlands (expansion of involuntary part-time jobs). Central European countries have moderate rates, and most Continental and Eastern countries have low rates. We also find that a higher level of education is related to a lower probability of having a precarious job. Finally, we find a greater probability of having a precarious job among women in most countries, and non-statistically significant differences by country of birth.

     

A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Quality of Employment (QoE) Deprivation in Six Central American Countries

This paper proposes a methodology for measuring Quality of Employment (QoE) deprivation from a multidimensional perspective in six Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) using a dataset specifically designed to measure employment conditions. Building on previous work on multidimensional poverty and employment indicators, the paper uses the Alkire/Foster (AF) method to construct a synthetic indicator of the QoE at an individual level. It selects four dimensions that must be considered as essential to QoE deprivation: income, job stability, job security and employment conditions. These dimensions then subdivide into several indicators, a threshold for each indicator and dimension is established before defining an overall cut-off line that allows for the calculation of composite levels of deprivation. The results generated by this indicator show that Central American countries can be divided into three distinct and robust performance groups in terms of their QoE deprivation. Overall, approximately 60% of the deprivation levels are attributable to non-income variables, such as occupational status and job tenure. The methodology used can allow policymakers to identify and focus on the most vulnerable workers in a labour market and highlights the fact that having a formal written contract is no guarantee of good job quality, particularly in the case of women.

     

A Survey of Asset Poverty Among Older Adults of Hong Kong

This study proposes a framework that quantifies and integrates both the tangible and intangible aspects of HC to comprehensively measure the overall level of human capital index (HCI) in small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). Data were collected from 100 SME experts through the use of questionnaires in two stages. The data collected were first, used for selection purpose, and second, for the prioritization of relevant dimensions and sub-dimensions of HC. The analytic hierarchy process was adopted to prioritize and assign dimension and sub-dimension weights to HC to derive the HCI. The results indicate that not all dimensions and sub-dimensions of HC are important for the HCI. Namely, the HCI can be best represented by 9 dimensions and 35 sub-dimensions of HC. The core dimensions are experience, skills, education, abilities and training. Indeed, within experience, the main sub-dimensions are work-related experience and organizational tenure. The results suggest the importance of experience relative to skills and education. The proposed framework can also be applied to derive industry specific HCI.     

A New Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Precarious Employment

This article proposes a new methodology to measure precarious employment with a multidimensional approach. The adjusted multidimensional precariousness rate employed to measure job precariousness is calculated on a counting approach and exhibit several advantages, including its decomposability according to the relative contribution to total precariousness of different dimensions and sub-populations. For illustrative purposes, the methodology is applied to the Spanish case using microdata from the Encuesta de Estructura Salarial (Wage Structure Survey) and considering three precariousness dimensions of jobs (low wages, fixed-term contracts and part-time work). The evidence obtained shows that at the beginning of the economic crisis there was an increase in the incidence and intensity of precariousness for new jobs created in the Spanish economy. Moreover, obtained evidence shows that the incidence of precarious employment is particularly high in certain economic sectors and for females.     

Overeducation as Status Inconsistency: Effects on Job Satisfaction,Subjective Well-Being and the Image of Social Stratification

Social Indicators Research - In this article, we aim to study the effects of the experience of overeducation, understood as a specific form of status inconsistency, in three areas: job...     

Small Fish in a Big Pond or Big Fish in a Small Pond? The Effects of Educational Mismatch on Subjective Wellbeing

This paper analyzes the effects of educational mismatch on subjective wellbeing. We first analyze whether a discrepancy exists between the aspirations associated with the level of education acquired by the individuals and the opportunities found in the labor market. Consistent with education generating certain aspirations, we find that educational mismatch has a sizable significant negative impact on life satisfaction for over-educated individuals while the effect is positive for under-educated workers. Next, we focus on workers with different educational levels but who perform similar jobs. In this case we only find under-education to negatively affect life satisfaction levels, a result which is consistent either with the existence of an inferiority complex or a struggle to perform a job for which the individual is not adequately trained. The effects are economically relevant and amount between one-fifth and one-fourth of the impact produced by other negative life events such as unemployment.     

Mismatch in the Norwegian Labour Market 2003–2013: Did Immigrants Make a Difference?

For the Norwegian economy, 2003–2013 was a period of large growth and big business cycle fluctuations. The aggregate uv-curve reflects this and shows a reduction in both the vacancy rate and the unemployment rate from 2003 to 2013, suggesting improved labour market matching over the period. The inclusion of Eastern European countries in the European Union in 2004 and 2007 caused an increasing influx of foreign job seekers. I quantify regional and occupational mismatch, and make a distinction between natives and immigrants. Indicators show no reduction in mismatch over time, which therefore cannot account for the increased labour market efficiency that the uv-curve suggests. However, ‘footloose’ immigrants seem to have adapted better than ‘rooted’ natives to the structure of labour demand in the regional dimension, and thus to have contributed to a lower level of mismatch than would have resulted without immigrants. In the occupational dimension immigrants made no significant difference. Levels and differences in employment and unemployment among and between immigrants and natives were not well explained by their education levels or types.     

Measuring Overeducation: Incidence,Correlation and Overlaps Across Indicators and Countries

The methodological debate on how to measure overeducation has been present since the introduction of the topic in the academic debate. Nevertheless, there is still no consensus on a preferred indicator. This article aims at contributing to the existing methodological debate providing systematic and cross-country evidence on the variation across overeducation measurements. Using REFLEX/HEGESCO and EULFS datasets, I provide evidence on within and across countries variation on the incidence, correlation and overlaps across the main types of objective, statistical and subjective overeducation indicators. Results suggest that worker’s self-reported indicators better cope with comparative studies, while in single-country studies objective indicators are likely to provide a more in-depth and detailed measurement. The use of statistical indicators is advised in contexts with labour markets that easily adapt to educational and employment changes, especially if these are not affected by credential inflation. However, it is advisable to use more than one indicator whenever data allows it, as different types of overeducation measurements provide different outcomes and results are likely to be complementary rather than excluding information on the overeducation phenomenon. This is especially relevant when overeducation is used as a dependent variable rather than a predictor. An initial review and discussion of the existing types of overeducation measurements and their advantages and drawbacks precedes the empirical evidence.

     

A Regional Development Index for Portugal

In a report from 2008 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development came to the conclusion that Portugal is a country still very much marked by regional asymmetries and in need of better regional governance mechanisms and policies. We propose a regional development index for Portugal at the NUTS III level, based on the methodology of the human development index (HDI) from the United Nations Development Programme, which will be helpful to assess the evolution of the asymmetries between regions and evaluate the need for regional policy. Results show us a country that has most of the highest ranked NUTS III regions positioned along the coastline, although some interior NUTS III regions improved their relative positions in the ranking between 2004 and 2009. In addition to the three traditional dimensions of the HDI—income, education, and health—we include two more, given their increasing importance in the literature that criticizes the HDI and suggests the inclusion of new variables—governance and environment. Results show some considerable differences when we add the environment dimension: the interior regions improve their relative positions in the ranking, but in terms of governance they change little. Results also show that there is still the need for regional policy, although the dispersion in the ranking between the best and worst positioned NUTS III regions has decreased in all dimensions except education.     

预期收益最大化与“蚁族”现象

蚁族现象的本质是大学毕业生选择在大城市还是中小城镇就业的问题。从理性人假设的角度来看,"蚁族"现象的原因在于"蚁族"们为了获得更多的就业机会、更高的就业质量等经济收益,和更多的教育收益、消费收益、心理收益和健康收益等非经济收益,从而主动选择在大城市就业的结果。减少"蚁族"现象的思路在于提高大学毕业生收入、促进教育公平和均衡发展、重视发展中小城镇、引导大学毕业生到中小城镇就业。     

Hypersegregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Black and Hispanic Segregation Along Five Dimensions

Residential segregation has traditionally been measured by using the index of dissimilarity and, more recently, the P* exposure index. These indices, however, measure only two of five potential dimensions of segregation and, by themselves, understate the degree of black segregation in U.S. society. Compared with Hispanics, not only are blacks more segregated on any single dimension of residential segregation, they are also likely to be segregated on all five dimensions simultaneously, which never occurs for Hispanics. Moreover, in a significant subset of large urban areas, blacks experience extreme segregation on all dimensions, a pattern we call hypersegregation. This finding is upheld and reinforced by a multivariate analysis. We conclude that blacks occupy a unique and distinctly disadvantaged position in the U.S. urban environment.     

大学生就业难的症结分析

大学毕业生就业问题目前已经成为了全社会普遍关注的热点。大学生就业难是未来10年内的十大社会问题之一。大学生就业难的成因很多,其症结主要是在大学生及高校身上,表现为结构性失业,即"有业就不上,有业不想就,有业不能就,无业可以就"。提高高等教育办学的质量,增强大学生的核心竞争力,转变大学生的就业观念和价值取向,促进大学生的全面发展,是解决大学生就业难的根本出路。     

Erratum to: The Development Hypothesis of Women Empowerment in the Millennium Development Goals Tested in the Context of Women’s Access to Land in Africa

A number of empirical studies have shown a positive influence of employment stability on job satisfaction. Employment stability, usually measured by the type of contract an individual has, may affect one’s job satisfaction directly, as well as through its impact on other relative variables, such as job security, since a stable position seems to bring individuals a sense of security. The aim of our research is to investigate the relationships between job security, employment stability and job satisfaction of workers in Poland. In the study, we strive to show how these factors impact knowledge workers and other workers differently. In order to conduct analysis, we propose two logistic models, separate for these two groups, with job satisfaction as a dependent variable and type of contract and three items denoting different dimensions of job insecurity: an insecure source of income, too many duties to cope with and being treated unjustly at the workplace, as independent variables. The robustness of the models has been defended by the introduction of the time dimension. The results show that job insecurity is the most influential factor in the model of job satisfaction for all employees. However, this impact differs depending on the employment arrangements. Flexible workers are much more vulnerable to job insecurities in terms of job satisfaction. Another finding is that the job satisfaction of knowledge workers is more influenced by job security.     

人力资本、社会资本与工作转换①--基于城乡大学毕业生的比较研究

城乡大学毕业生在工作转换上的差异,一直以来广受关注却缺乏实证考察。研究表明：当前大学毕业生发生工作转换的比例并不高,城乡两类大学毕业生在工作转换上也不存在显著差异。总体而言,人力资本有利于大学毕业生的稳定就业,而工作年限与社会资本则会增加其工作转换的可能性。但更为细致的分析发现,与城镇家庭出生者相比,来自农村的大学毕业生的人力资本与社会资本均呈明显的劣势,且对其工作转换的影响较弱,他们工作转换后的回报也甚微,这意味着城乡差异与资本累积的不平等仍然存在。