Peter J. Sloane

Overeducation, undereducation and the British labour market

This paper addresses the issue of overeducation and undereducation using for the first time a British dataset which contains explicit information on the level of required education to enter a job across the generality of occupations. Three key issues within the overeducation literature are addressed. First, what determines the existence of over and undereducation and to what extent are over and undereducation substitutes for experience, tenure and training? Second, to what extent are over and undereducation temporary or permanent phenomena? Third, what are the returns to over and undereducation and do certain stylized facts discovered for the US and a number of European countries hold for Britain?

Job Satisfaction,Comparison Earnings and Gender

This paper examines sex differences in job satisfaction by utilizing data from the 1986 UK Social and Economic Life Initiative (SCELI) household survey. It attempts to ascertain the relationship between actual and comparison pay and job satisfaction. Employees were asked on a 0-10 scale how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with their present job. They were also asked to state whether they were equitably, over or underpaid and to say how much pay they thought they deserved. Uniquely, therefore, we are able to analyse the effects of both actual and objective and subjective comparative pay measures on job satisfaction. The paper rejects the view that the higher expressed job satisfaction of women represents an innate difference rather than the results of selfdselection into jobs with highly valued attributes. Copyright Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2000.

Overeducation among Graduates: A Cohort View.

This paper uses a survey of graduates from two cohort years (1985 and 1990) to examine the determinants of overeducation in the UK. We determine whether or not graduates are matched in jobs for which degrees are required. Longitudinal comparisons up to 11 years after graduation permit examination of how the matching process alters over time. The implications of mismatch for job satisfaction and earnings over the career cycle are traced. We find that cross-sectional measures of mismatch obscure significant changes for individuals over time; that the speed of movement into and out of matched work is important; and that both job satisfaction and earnings are significantly adversely affected by mismatch.

Disability and the labour market: an analysis of British males.

This paper attempts, using data from the British Labour Force Survey 1996, to examine to what extent differences in labour market outcomes between able-bodied and disabled men may be attributed to differences in endowments of human capital and associated productivity differences. Both labour force participation and selectivity corrected human capital equations are estimated and decomposition techniques applied to them. Using the methodology of Baldwin and Johnson [Baldwin, M., Johnson, W.G., 1994. Labor market discrimination against men with disabilities. Journal of Human Resources, XXIX(1), Winter, 1-19], the employment effects of wage discrimination against the disabled are also estimated. Evidence of both substantial wage and participation rate differences between able-bodied and disabled men are found, which have implications for the operation of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act.

How Well Can We Measure Graduate Over- Education and Its Effects?

Using data from two cohorts of graduates, this article examines three aspects of over-education. First, using three new measures, we present an estimate of graduate over-education in the UK. We find that the scale of over-education varies with measurement techniques, with weak correlations between the three measures. Second, across the three measures we estimate the effects of over-education on earnings and job satisfaction. The effects of over-education on earnings and job satisfaction are similar, not withstanding the measures identifying different individuals as being over-educated. One finding is that the effects of being over-educated are more significant for female graduates than male, although it is ambigu ous which gender is more prone to over-education. Third, we examine another source of ambiguity regarding over education, namely that firms upgrade the tasks they allocate to their employees who appear to be over-educated. We find that, for graduates, job quality for the over-educated is not converging to that of the appropriately educated.

Gender Differences in Educational Attainment: The Case of University Students in England and Wales

This paper examines the determinants of gender differences in educational attainment using data for all university graduates. We find that, although women students perform better on average than their male counterparts, they are significantly less likely to obtain a first class degree. There is no evidence that this is because of differences in the types of subject male and female students study or in the institutions they attend, nor does it reflect differences in personal attributes, such as academic ability. Rather, it is differences in the way these factors affect academic achievement that give rise to gender differences in performance.

Training, Job Satisfaction and Workplace Performance in Britain: Evidence from WERS 2004

This paper analyses the relationship between training, job satisfaction and workplace performance using the British 2004 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS). Several measures of performance are analysed including absence, quits, financial performance, labour productivity and product quality. While there is clear evidence that training is positively associated with job satisfaction, and job satisfaction in turn is positively associated with most measures of performance, the relationship between training and performance is complex, depending on both the particular measures of training and of performance used in the analysis.

The Return to a University Education in Great Britain

In this paper, we estimate the rate of return to first degrees, masters degrees and PhDs in Britain using data from the Labour Force Survey. We estimate returns to broad subject groups and more narrowly defined disciplines, distinguishing returns by gender and attempting to control for variations in student quality across disciplines. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity in returns to particular degree programmes and by gender, which have important policy implications for charging students for the costs of their education.

The Problem of Overskilling in Australia and Britain

In this paper we examine the parallel trends in education and labour market developments in Australia and Britain using unique information on reported overskilling in the workplace. To a degree, the overskilling information overcomes the problem of unobserved ability differences and focuses on the actual job–employee mismatch more than the conventional overeducation variables can. The paper finds that the prevalence of overskilling decreases with education at least for Australia, but the wage penalty associated with overskilling increases with education. Although the prevalence of overskilling differs between Australia and Britain, the pattern of the wage penalties is fairly similar in both countries.

Overeducation and the formal education/experience and training trade-off

For the first time the issue of overeducation is addressed for the UK. Substantial amounts of over and undereducation are found. The evidence supports the view that formal education and other components of human capital are substitutes for the over- and undereducated.