Education-occupation mismatch: Is there an income penalty?

Arbeitspapier

This paper adds to the small literature on the consequences of education-occupation mismatches. It examines the income penalty for field of education – occupation mismatches for men and women with higher education in Sweden and reveals that the penalty for such mismatches is large for both men and women. In fact, it is substantially larger than has been found for the US. Controlling for cognitive ability further establishes that the income penalty is not caused by a sorting by ability, at least for Swedish men. The income penalty for men decreases with work experience which is an indication that education-specific skills and work experience are substitutes to some extent. There is no evidence, though, that the mismatched individuals move to a matching occupation over time. Thus, for some, the income penalty seems to be permanent.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 2009:1

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Analysis of Education ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: Human capital ; rate of return ; salary wage differentials ; educational economics

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Nordin, Martin ; Persson, Inga ; Rooth, Dan-Olof
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Lund University, School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics
• (where): Lund
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/259965
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET