Overeducation in the U.S. During the Great Recession

22 Pages Posted: 26 May 2016 Last revised: 2 Sep 2016

See all articles by Vedant Koppera

Vedant Koppera

University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Economics, Students

Date Written: May 25, 2016

Abstract

I use the method introduced by Gottschalk and Hansen (2003) to analyze the rate of overeducation among workers with exactly a college degree between 2006 and 2013. To my knowledge, this is the first study to use this method to analyze trends in overeducation during the great recession in the U.S. I find that the proportion of workers with exactly a college degree working in occupations offering low college premiums increased during great recession and fell afterwards. An increase in the rate in overeducation could be due to more college-educated workers working in noncollege occupations that were noncollege in the past or because there was an increase in the number of noncollege occupations. I show that changes in the rate of overeducation are mostly due mostly to the latter. When shutting the down the flexibility for occupations to change from college to noncollege (and vice versa), the rate of overeducation increases only slightly between 2006 and 2013. Regardless, these findings run contrary to the secular decline of the rate of overeducation during the end of 20th century documented by previous research.

Keywords: Overeducation, College, Premium, Recession

JEL Classification: J24, I26

Suggested Citation

Koppera, Vedant, Overeducation in the U.S. During the Great Recession (May 25, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2784542 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2784542

Vedant Koppera (Contact Author)

University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Economics, Students ( email )

Santa Barbara, CA
United States

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