Do wages and job satisfaction really depend on educational mismatch? Evidence from an international sample of master graduates

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find econometric evidence of a negative influence of educational mismatch on either wage or job satisfaction, once potential sources of bias are adequately considered. The analysis attempts to answer the question: do wage or job satisfaction really depends on educational mismatch?

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a panel data of 1690 early career Master graduates from Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Switzerland. First, a wage equation with dummies representing educational mismatch and other control variables is estimated. On the other hand, a regression in which the dependent variable is the degree of self-assessed job satisfaction is run in order to identify the effect of mismatch on job satisfaction.

Findings

The analysis finds no robust econometric evidence of a negative influence of educational mismatch on either wage or job satisfaction, once potential sources of bias are adequately considered.

Research limitations/implications

The estimates have been conducted on a specific sub-population, i.e. a limited sample of Master graduates from a single Swiss university in the years 2006–2016; it is then not straightforward that results can be generalised to the whole population.

Originality/value

The influence of educational mismatch on job satisfaction has been extensively studied in the previous literature; however, most of the existing studies are likely to report biased results due to unobserved heterogeneity and measurement error. The authors address these two serious econometric issues by proposing a new instrumental variable for a self-assessed mismatch, i.e. time spent in job search after graduation.

Citation

Naguib, C., Baruffini, M. and Maggi, R. (2019), "Do wages and job satisfaction really depend on educational mismatch? Evidence from an international sample of master graduates", Education + Training, Vol. 61 No. 2, pp. 201-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-06-2018-0137