Much Ado about Nothing? The Wage Penalty of Holding a PhD Degree but Not a PhD Job Position☆

Giuseppe Gaeta, Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera and Francesco Pastore

A chapter in Skill Mismatch in Labor Markets, 2017, vol. 45, pp 243-277 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on overeducation by empirically investigating the wage penalty of job–education mismatch among PhD holders who completed their studies in Italy; a country where the number of new doctoral recipients has dramatically increased over recent years while personnel employed in R&D activities is still below the European average. We use cross-sectional micro-data collected in 2009 and rely on different definitions of education–job mismatch such as, overeducation, overskilling, and dissatisfaction with the use of skills. We find that overeducation and skills dissatisfaction are associated with significantly lower wages but there is no wage penalty from overskilling. Furthermore, those who simultaneously report overeducation and skills dissatisfaction experience a particularly high wage penalty.

Keywords: Job–education mismatch; overeducation; overskilling; job satisfaction; wages; PhD holders; C26; I23; I26; J13; J24; J28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-912120170000045007

DOI: 10.1108/S0147-912120170000045007

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