Heaven knows I’m miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction

Piper, Alan T. (2012): Heaven knows I’m miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction.

Abstract

This study is an investigation into relative overeducation and life satisfaction using British longitudinal data. The focus is on young people rather than the whole of the life cycle, an arguably more homogenous group. Such a focus means that the overeducation variable does not simply capture the increased participation in Higher Education of the young. The hypothesis is that there is a negative relationship between being overeducated and life satisfaction. Overeducation is measured using the realised matches approach, a statistical measurement comparing an individual’s years of schooling with the average for one of two employment based reference groups. Using dynamic panel analysis, to account for the presence of serial correlation, such an association is found: the relatively overeducated seem to be relatively less happy.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Life Satisfaction; Happiness; Overeducation; Dynamic Panel Analysis; BHPS
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being; A - General Economics and Teaching > A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models

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