Arnaud Chevalier|Joanne Lindley
Overeducation and the Skills of UK Graduates
Royal Holloway University of London|University of Sheffield
summary early 1990s proportion cohort entering higher education uk doubled short period time paper investigates effect expansion graduates early labour market attainment focusing overeducation define overeducation combining occupation codes selfreported measure appropriateness match qualification job therefore define three groups graduates matched apparently overeducated genuinely overeducated measure well correlated alternative definitions overeducation comparing pre postexpansion cohorts graduates find measure proportion overeducated graduates doubled even though overeducation wage penalties remained stable find type institution affects probability genuine overeducation apparently overeducated graduates mostly indistinguishable matched graduates whereas genuinely overeducated graduates principally lack nonacademic skills suffer large wage penalty individual unobserved heterogeneity differs three groups graduates controlling alter conclusions