Heaven knows I’m miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction

Alan Piper

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This study is an investigation into relative overeducation and life satisfaction using British longitudinal data. The focus is on young people rather than the whole of the life cycle, an arguably more homogenous group. Such a focus means that the overeducation variable does not simply capture the increased participation in Higher Education of the young. The hypothesis is that there is a negative relationship between being overeducated and life satisfaction. Overeducation is measured using the realised matches approach, a statistical measurement comparing an individual’s years of schooling with the average for one of two employment based reference groups. Using dynamic panel analysis, to account for the presence of serial correlation, such an association is found: the relatively overeducated seem to be relatively less happy.

Keywords: Life Satisfaction; Happiness; Overeducation; Dynamic Panel Analysis; BHPS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 C33 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/43259/1/MPRA_paper_43259.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/44193/1/MPRA_paper_44193.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Heaven knows I’m miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:43259

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