Arbeitspapier

Misinformed, mismatched, or misled? Explaining the gap between expected and realized graduate earnings in Mozambique

Inaccurate expectations of future wages are found in many contexts. Yet, existing studies overwhelmingly refer to high-income countries, and there is little evidence regarding the sources of expectational errors. Based on a longitudinal survey of graduates from the six largest universities in Mozambique, we find the gap between expected and realized first earnings are extremely large. Applying a novel decomposition procedure, we find these errors are not driven by incorrect information about labour market returns. Job mismatches of various kinds account for over one-third of the total expectational error, while the remaining error reflects bias from misleading reference points (superstar salaries). While this suggests a need for greater transparency regarding levels of remuneration, we find no evidence that optimistic expectations are associated with poorer labour market outcomes.

ISBN
978-92-9256-804-7
Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2020/47

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Demand and Supply of Labor: General
Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
Thema
job mismatch
Mozambique
optimism
tracer study
wage expectations

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Jones, Sam
Santos, Ricardo
Xirinda, Gimelgo
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
(wo)
Helsinki
(wann)
2020

DOI
doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2020/804-7
Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2022, 00:31 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Jones, Sam
  • Santos, Ricardo
  • Xirinda, Gimelgo
  • The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

Entstanden

  • 2020

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