Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market

This paper uses data from the 1996 Census of Population and Housing Household Sample File (HSF) to study the incidence of mismatch between workers’ educational attainments and the requirements of their jobs, and the earnings consequences of this mismatch. It also examines whether mismatch contri...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Voon, Derby, Miller, Paul
Other Authors: Christopher Hawkes
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Blackwell Publishing Asia 2005
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/4472
_version_ 1848744525283983360
author Voon, Derby
Miller, Paul
author2 Christopher Hawkes
author_facet Christopher Hawkes
Voon, Derby
Miller, Paul
author_sort Voon, Derby
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper uses data from the 1996 Census of Population and Housing Household Sample File (HSF) to study the incidence of mismatch between workers’ educational attainments and the requirements of their jobs, and the earnings consequences of this mismatch. It also examines whether mismatch contributes to the explanation of the gender wage differential in the Australian labour market. It is found that approximately 15.8 per cent of men and 13.6 per cent of women are overeducated, whereas approximately 18.5 per cent ofwomen and 13.7 per cent of men are undereducated. Substantial earnings consequences are found to be associated with this mismatch, with surplus schooling yielding relatively low returns. The results suggest that mismatch does not account for the gender wage gap in the Australian labour market; rather the gender wage differential is entrenched in the fundamentals of pay determination.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T06:02:51Z
format Conference Paper
id curtin-20.500.11937-4472
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:02:51Z
publishDate 2005
publisher Blackwell Publishing Asia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-44722022-10-11T07:36:07Z Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market Voon, Derby Miller, Paul Christopher Hawkes Genevieve Walton This paper uses data from the 1996 Census of Population and Housing Household Sample File (HSF) to study the incidence of mismatch between workers’ educational attainments and the requirements of their jobs, and the earnings consequences of this mismatch. It also examines whether mismatch contributes to the explanation of the gender wage differential in the Australian labour market. It is found that approximately 15.8 per cent of men and 13.6 per cent of women are overeducated, whereas approximately 18.5 per cent ofwomen and 13.7 per cent of men are undereducated. Substantial earnings consequences are found to be associated with this mismatch, with surplus schooling yielding relatively low returns. The results suggest that mismatch does not account for the gender wage gap in the Australian labour market; rather the gender wage differential is entrenched in the fundamentals of pay determination. 2005 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/4472 10.1111/j.1475-4932.2005.00247.x Blackwell Publishing Asia restricted
spellingShingle Voon, Derby
Miller, Paul
Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market
title Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market
title_full Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market
title_fullStr Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market
title_full_unstemmed Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market
title_short Undereducation and overeducation in the Australian labour market
title_sort undereducation and overeducation in the australian labour market
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/4472