Definitions and Some Theoretical Approaches

Evidence from several developed economies has shown that skill mismatch and overeducation are widespread phenomena and that they typically affect about one- third of the higher educated employed population.

Overeducation and mismatching can be considered as two important elements for assessing the quality attributes of a job. A Cedefop paper [35] introduces some clear­cut definitions and discussions about the differences between the terms over-(under) education, over-(under) skilling and skill mismatch.

The definitions of mismatching and overeducation can vary depending on the objective and subjective approaches and measures [56]. Objective measures are based on a comparison between the actual education-level and the job-level requirements. Subjective measures are based on the worker’s self-assessment by directly asking questions on their job conditions.

The literature suggests that there is a correlation between overeducation and mis­matching and that both phenomena tend to have distinct implications for workers [8]. In most empirical work [48, 74, 75, 79], mismatching is defined as a proportion of graduates working in jobs for which acquired skills are not required, while overedu­cation is defined as a proportion of graduates working in jobs for which a university degree was not a formal requirement. Many studies view educational mismatch as an overeducation problem, defined as “the lack of coherence between the required and offered educational level for a given job” [23]. The logical consequence of this issue is the presence of overeducated workers when the skills they bring to their jobs exceed the skills required for that job. Thus, graduates are overeducated and mismatched in the labour market if they are employed in jobs for which a degree is not required [8, 54, 61, 64] and their skills are not necessary for their work.

The literature on mismatch has grown significantly over the years. Since 1975, Freeman [51] paid considerable attention to this concept. Afterwards, Jovanovic [59] studied the mismatching phenomenon linked to the turnover theory. The impact of

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R. Allegro and O. Giambalvo, University Performance Before and During Economic

Crises, UNIPA Springer Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36142-6_2 job mismatching has been well-documented in both economic [40, 41, 47, 55, 61] and sociological literature [4, 22].

Overeducation is approached according to the following economic theories:

The human capital theory helps in understanding overeducation as a consequence of the lack of the work-related component of human capital [24]. Therefore, overe­ducation is a sign of low and not high skills; the overeducated have a higher edu­cation level, but do not have sufficient general and/or job-specific work experience. Many scholars (see [10, 61, 76]) use this theoretical framework to understand why overeducation is typical in young people, despite their increasing education level.

An alternative approach is provided by the job competition model [78]. Excess schooling is a consequence of the competition for jobs where everybody is involved in competing for only a few available jobs. According to this theory, overeducation is generated by competition based on accumulating education and thus, in some cases, reaching a higher level of education than the one required to get the job. Consequently, unemployment is involuntary and the job placement process is like a lottery for the best job opportunity.

With the assignment theory, Sattinger [72] attempted to reconcile the two previous theories. On the one hand, like the job competition model, the job assignment theory assumes that available jobs are limited and makes any job-worker match unique. On the other hand, “like the human capital theory, it assumes that the individuals who are able to compete for the best job and wages are bound to be influenced by the human capital level of individuals” ([32], p. 39). Overeducation arises because wages will neither be entirely related to acquired schooling and other individual attributes (like in the human capital model), nor to the nature of the job (like in the job competition theory).

The career mobility theory [75] would suggest overeducation in early careers as an initial option for young people that is compensated by better promotion prospects.

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