Horizontal Mismatch and Vocational Education

Jürg Schweri, Annina Eymann and Manuel Aepli

No 160, Economics of Education Working Paper Series from University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW)

Abstract: Recent literature suggests that vocational education provides individuals with smoother transitions into the labor market but lower wages over the lifecycle. A possible mechanism explaining lower wages is horizontal mismatch, defined as a mismatch between qualifications acquired by individuals and those required for their current job. Some studies have found higher mismatch wage penalties when individuals' education is more specific. Therefore, we analyze horizontal mismatch in Switzerland, the country with the highest proportion of firm-based vocational education and training in the OECD. We use subjective and objective measures of mismatch from the Swiss Household Panel. While we find sizeable mismatch wage penalties in OLS estimations, effects are small or insignificant in fixed-effects regressions. This holds for workers with vocational and general education background alike. We conclude that vocational education is more transferable than often assumed. We finish with recommendations on concept and methods for future analyses of horizontal mismatch.

Keywords: Horizontal mismatch; Overeducation; Qualification; Switzerland; Training; Vocational Education; Wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J24 J31 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-lma and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Horizontal mismatch and vocational education (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iso:educat:0160

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