The Problem of Overskilling in Australia and Britain

Kostas Mavromaras, Seamus McGuinness, Nigel C. O'Leary (), Peter Sloane and King Fok
Additional contact information
Nigel C. O'Leary: Swansea University

No 3136, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper examines the parallel trends in education and labour market developments in Australia and Britain. It uses unique information in the WERS and HILDA surveys on reported overskilling in the workplace. To a degree, the overskilling information overcomes the problem of unobserved ability differences and focuses on the actual job-employee mismatch more than the conventional overeducation variables can. The paper finds that the prevalence of overskilling decreases with education at least for Australia, but the wage penalty associated with overskilling increases with education. Although the general patterns of overskilling (prevalence and penalties) are fairly similar between Australia and Britain, the problem appears to be greater in Britain.

Keywords: Australia; overeducation; overskilling; Britain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2007-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Manchester School, 2010, 78(3), 219-238

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https://docs.iza.org/dp3136.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: THE PROBLEM OF OVERSKILLING IN AUSTRALIA AND BRITAIN (2010)
Working Paper: The Problem of Overskilling in Australia and Britain (2007)
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