Major-Occupation Match Quality: An Empirical Measure Based on Relative Productivity

Margaret Leighton and Speer Jamin D. ()
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Speer Jamin D.: University of Memphis, Memphis, USA

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2023, vol. 23, issue 1, 285-292

Abstract: The match quality between a worker’s field of study in college and her occupation is an important labor market outcome. Yet this match quality is difficult to define and measure. We propose a new measure of major-occupation match quality based on relative productivity. A worker is well-matched if graduates from her major, working in her occupation, have high earnings relative to other major-occupation pairs. We show that some majors can be very well-matched or very badly matched (e.g. nursing), while others are never very well- or badly matched (e.g. humanities). Our measure has two desirable features: it is continuous, and it can be estimated in any data set including field of study, wage, and occupation.

Keywords: college major; match quality; mismatch; occupations; higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I24 I26 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2022-0254

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