Unemployment or Overeducation: Which is a Worse Signal to Employers?

Stijn Baert and Dieter Verhaest

De Economist, 2019, vol. 167, issue 1, No 1, 21 pages

Abstract: Abstract This study estimates the stigma effect of unemployment and overeducation within one framework. We conduct a randomised field experiment in which we send out trios of fictitious job applications, from male candidates with no relevant work experience, to real vacancies. One candidate graduated just a few months before the application, the two others graduated a year earlier and had been unemployed or underemployed since that time. By monitoring the subsequent callback, we find evidence of a larger stigma effect of unemployment than overeducation. The stigma effect of overeducation is found to occur for permanent contract jobs but not for temporary ones.

Keywords: Unemployment signalling; Overeducation signalling; Transitions in youth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J24 J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Unemployment or Overeducation: Which is a Worse Signal to Employers? (2014)
Working Paper: Unemployment or Overeducation: Which is a Worse Signal to Employers? (2014)
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DOI: 10.1007/s10645-018-9330-2

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