The wage effects of overeducation across overall wage distribution on university graduates: incidence, heterogeneity and comparison

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the extent to which overeducation imposes wage effects on university graduates, taking into account the individual heterogeneity due to skills and innate ability.Design/methodology/approachUsing Graduates Occupation and Mobility Survey (GOMS) 2019 and Korea Dictionary of Occupations (KDOT) 2019, the overeducated and adequately educated graduates are differentiated by the job analysis (JA) measure. To unveil the masked results, the unconditional quantile regression (UQR) accompanying skills and field of study mismatches is adopted to explore the wage effects of overeducation across the overall wage distribution.FindingsEmpirical evidence shows that the incidence of overeducation is high; however, overeducated graduates only suffer a 6.5% wage loss relative to their adequately matched peers. The findings indicate that regardless of being derived from either overskilled or field of study mismatch, genuine overeducation impose a higher wage penalty at all percentiles relative to the apparent overeducation. Meanwhile, high-ability men suffer lower-wage penalties than their low-ability peers, whereas the inverted “U” pattern is exhibited for women. The theoretical hypotheses differ depending on the estimated results by gender.Research limitations/implicationsEach measure of educational mismatch has been criticized for its insurmountable shortcoming. The recent graduates are likely to overstate the job requires of skills.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the insufficient evidence on the multiple aspects of wage effects of overeducation by providing new and rigorous examinations and by focusing on the country experiencing rapid economic growth, industrial upgrading and educational expansion.

Doctoral Education, Job Mismatch, and Wage Consequences in South Korea: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

This study extends the previous literature on the wage effects of over-education, focusing on young doctorate holders (DHs). It also contributes to the conventional over-education literature on a causal relationship between over-education and wages by implementing techniques of propensity score matching (PSM). By tackling potential bias as a consequence of omitted variable bias via the PSM strategy, this study provides evidence of the negative influence of over-education on wages (i.e., the over-education wage penalty) once potential sources of bias are adequately considered. While the current analysis is focused on one country, South Korea, its results might be relevant for many other countries that have experienced a rapid expansion in the supply of DHs over recent years.

Immigration, Wages and Employment under Informal Labor Markets

This paper studies the labor market impacts of a massive inflow of Venezuelans in Colombia. By comparing areas that received different shares of migrants, I find a negative effect on wages and on local employment for natives. The negative wage effect is driven by a large drop of wages in the informal sector, where migrants are mostly employed, while the negative employment effect is driven by a reduction of employment in the formal sector, where the minimum wage is binding. To explain these results, I develop a model in which firms hire formal and informal workers with different costs. If these workers have a high degree of substitutability, and wages for formal workers are rigid, firms reallocate formal to informal employment as a response to lower informal wages. In settings with informal labor markets migration can therefore lead to asymmetric employment and wage effects across the informal and formal sectors.

Die Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf die Rentenentwicklung

Der Beitrag untersucht auf Basis eines Simulationsmodells und empirischer Daten die Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf die Rentenversicherung. Dabei werden sowohl die Wirkungen auf das Rentensystem insgesamt als auch die individuellen Rentenansprüche von Beschäftigten analysiert. Auf das Rentensystem insgesamt hat der Mindestlohn praktisch keine Auswirkungen, weil der Impuls des Mindestlohns auf die gesamtwirtschaftliche Lohnsumme letztlich zu gering ist. Auf individueller Ebene können sich die Rentenanwartschaften der Versicherten je nachdem, wie deutlich ihr Verdienst aufgrund der Mindestlohneinführung gestiegen ist, erhöhen. Die Rentenanwartschaften bleiben aber bei einem Verdienst in Höhe des Mindestlohns selbst bei durchgängiger Vollzeitbeschäftigung unter dem Niveau der Grundsicherung im Alter. Abstract: The Effects of Minimum Wage on the Statutory Pension Insurance in Germany In 2015, Germany introduced a national minimum wage. Based on a simulation model and empirical data we analyse its effects on the statutory pension insurance. We will consider aggregate effects on the pension insurance system in total as well as on individual pension entitlements of employees. Our results show that the minimum wage has only negligible effects on the pension system as a whole because the minimum wage induced wage effects on the economy’s total wage bill are rather small. On the individual level, the minimum wage can help to increase individual pension entitlements. The magnitude depends on individual wage increases resulting from the minimum wage introduction. However, even continuous full-time employment at the minimum wage level will not be enough to lift individual pension entitlements above the guaranteed minimum pension level.

Labor Market Volatility, Gender, and Trade Preferences

What explains divides in the public’s support for trade protection? Traditional economic arguments primarily focus on individuals’ expectations for increased or decreased wages in the face of greater economic openness, yet studies testing such wage-based concerns identify a different divide as well: even after accounting for wage effects, women are typically more supportive of trade protection. We argue that trade-induced employment volatility and the resulting concerns for employment stability are overlooked factors that help explain the gender divide in attitudes. Due to both structural discrimination and societal norms, we theorize that working women are more responsive to the threat of trade-related employment instability than male counterparts. Using an experiment fielded on national samples in the USA and Canada, we find that most respondents have weak reactions to volatility, but volatility has a significant effect on women who are the most vulnerable to trade’s disruptive effects – those working in import-competing industries and those with limited education.

Low-Wage Workers and the Enforceability of Noncompete Agreements

We exploit the 2008 Oregon ban on noncompete agreements (NCAs) for hourly-paid workers to provide the first evidence on the impact of NCAs on low-wage workers. We find that banning NCAs for hourly workers increased hourly wages by 2%–3% on average. Since only a subset of workers sign NCAs, scaling this estimate by the prevalence of NCA use in the hourly-paid population suggests that the effect on employees actually bound by NCAs may be as great as 14%–21%, though the true effect is likely lower due to labor market spillovers onto those not bound by NCAs. Whereas the positive wage effects are found across the age, education, and wage distributions, they are stronger for female workers and in occupations where NCAs are more common. The Oregon low-wage NCA ban also improved average occupational status in Oregon, raised job-to-job mobility, and increased the proportion of salaried workers without affecting hours worked. This paper was accepted by Lamar Pierce, organizations.