Education-Occupation Mismatch: Is There an Income Penalty?

Martin Nordin, Inga Persson () and Dan-Olof Rooth
Additional contact information
Inga Persson: Lund University

No 3806, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper adds to the small literature on the consequences of education-occupation mismatches. It examines the income penalty for field of education-occupation mismatches for men and women with higher education in Sweden and reveals that the penalty for such mismatches is large for both men and women. In fact, it is substantially larger than has been found for the US. Controlling for cognitive ability further establishes that the income penalty is not caused by a sorting by ability, at least for Swedish men. The income penalty for men decreases with work experience which is an indication that education-specific skills and work experience are substitutes to some extent. There is no evidence, though, that the mismatched individuals move to a matching occupation over time. Thus, for some, the income penalty seems to be permanent.

Keywords: human capital; rate of return; salary wage differentials; educational economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2008-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published - published in: Economics of Education Review, 2010, 29 (6), 1047-1059

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Related works:
Journal Article: Education-occupation mismatch: Is there an income penalty? (2010)
Working Paper: Education-occupation mismatch: Is there an income penalty? (2009)
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