Skill mismatches and wages among European university graduates

Bárcena-Martín, Elena and Budría, Santiago and Moro-Egido, Ana I. (2011): Skill mismatches and wages among European university graduates. Forthcoming in: Applied Economics Letters

Abstract

This paper uses comparable international data to examine the extent and wage effects of skill mismatches among European university graduates. The results show that the mismatched earn on average 11.7% less than their well-matched counterparts. This effect, however, cannot be regarded as constant across the conditional earnings distribution: workers with lower unobserved earnings capacity tend to be exposed to greater wage loses when they end up in mismatched jobs.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: skill mismatch, pay-penalty, inequality
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C29 - Other; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I21 - Analysis of Education

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