Overqualification, job dissatisfaction, and increasing dispersion in the returns to graduate education

Francis Green and Yu Zhu

Oxford Economic Papers, 2010, vol. 62, issue 4, 740-763

Abstract: We report increasing dispersion in the returns to graduate education in Britain, and relate this development to rising overqualification. We distinguish 'Real' and 'Formal' overqualification, according to whether it is accompanied by underutilization of skill. Employees in the former group experience greater, and more sharply rising, pay penalties than those in the latter group. Real Overqualification, but not Formal Overqualification, is associated with job dissatisfaction. While Formal Overqualification has been increasing over time, Real Overqualification has been steady or rising only slowly. The normative implication drawn is that the state should provide regular information on the distribution of the returns to graduate education. Copyright 2010 Oxford University Press 2010 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (154)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpq002 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Overqualification, Job Dissatisfaction, and Increasing Dispersion in the Returns to Graduate Education (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:62:y:2010:i:4:p:740-763

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Economic Papers is currently edited by James Forder and Francis J. Teal

More articles in Oxford Economic Papers from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().