The over-education wage penalty among PhD holders: a European perspective

Loredana Cultrera, Francois Rycx, Giulia Santosuosso and Guillaume Vermeylen

Education Economics, 2025, vol. 33, issue 1, 53-75

Abstract: Using a unique pan-European dataset, we rely on two alternative measures of over-education and control stepwise for four groups of covariates in order to interpret the over-education wage penalty in light of theoretical models. Firstly, it appears that a significant fraction (i.e. between 1/5 and 1/3) of PhD holders in Europe are genuinely over-educated. Secondly, these genuinely over-educated PhD holders are found to face a substantial wage penalty (ranging from 15 to almost 30%) with respect to their well-matched counterparts. Finally, unconditional quantile regressions highlight that the over-education wage penalty among PhD holders increases greatly along the wage distribution.

Date: 2025
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Working Paper: The Over-education Wage Penalty Among PhD Holders: A European Perspective (2022)
Working Paper: The Over-Education Wage Penalty among PhD Holders: A European Perspective (2022)
Working Paper: The over-education wage penalty among PhD holders: a European perspective (2022)
Working Paper: The Over-education Wage Penalty Among PhD Holders: A European Perspective (2022)
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DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2023.2277120

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