Patterns of Overeducation in Europe: The Role of Field of Study

Anja Rossen; Christina Boll; André Wolf

Open Access

Patterns of Overeducation in Europe: The Role of Field of Study

Anja Rossen

Christina Boll

and

André Wolf

| Jul 27, 2019

IZA Journal of Labor Policy

Volume 9 (2019): Issue 1 (June 2019)

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2019-0003

Keywords
college major, country-specific effects, EU countries, field of study, gender, labor force survey, overeducation, realized matches, vertical mismatch

© 2019 Anja Rossen, Christina Boll, André Wolf, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

Percentage of overeducated workers on all highly educated workers in EU-LFS 2016, based on the 80th percentile as standard education

Distribution of overeducation rates under different measures of standard educationSource: EU-LFS (2016).

Regression results for fields of study based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Overeducation measure: 80th percentile	Cross-country sample
	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE
Sex	−0.004	0.060
Field of study
General programs	−0.041	0.114	0.094	0.139
Education	−0.055*	0.033	−0.013	0.037
Arts and humanities	−0.045	0.032	0.066*	0.037
Business and law	−0.017	0.024	0.037	0.029
Natural sciences	0.097***	0.032	−0.073*	0.041
ICT	−0.097***	0.029	0.008	0.053
Engineering	−0.052**	0.024	0.039	0.032
Agriculture	0.019	0.042	−0.001	0.054
Health and welfare	−0.102***	0.034	0.026	0.038
Services	0.069**	0.031	−0.087**	0.040

Observations	34,627

Regression results—Average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the mode as the standard education

Overeducation measure: Mode	Cross-country sample
	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE
Inverse mills ratio	0.047***	0.018
Individual variables
Sex	−0.021	0.060
Age group (reference 20–24 years)
25–29 years	−0.044	0.047	0.039	0.056
30–34 years	−0.026	0.046	−0.003	0.055
Foreigner	0.149***	0.017
Job variables
Firm size (reference: < 10 persons)
11−19 persons	−0.021	0.018
20−49 persons	−0.041**	0.016
50 and more persons	−0.042***	0.014
Temporary contract	0.055***	0.013
Working hours (in 10 hours)	−0.037***	0.006
Tenure (in 10 years)	−0.021	0.038
Tenure squared (in 10 years)	−0.015	0.028

Observations	34,624

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Overeducation measure: 80th percentile	Cross-country sample
Country dummy	ME	SE
Austria	0.067***	0.012
Belgium	−0.074***	0.011
Bulgaria	−0.101***	0.032
Cyprus	−0.001	0.017
Czech Republic	0.029	0.021
Estonia	−0.101***	0.026
France	0.096***	0.015
Greece	0.071***	0.014
Hungary	0.059***	0.013
Ireland	−0.004	0.016
Italy	0.121***	0.012
Latvia	−0.019	0.023
Lithuania	−0.097***	0.017
Netherlands	−0.093***	0.015
Poland	−0.066***	0.009
Portugal	0.048***	0.015
Romania	−0.071***	0.014
Slovak Republic	−0.030	0.020
Spain	−0.002	0.023
United Kingdom	0.059***	0.013

Observations	34,627

Country-specific regression results—average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

	Austria				Belgium				Bulgraria
	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)		Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)		Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE
Sex	–0.042	0.200			0.083	0.082			0.124	0.264
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.201*	0.105	0.193*	0.114	0.094*	0.055	–0.114*	0.061	1.152***	0.245	–1.025***	0.259
Arts and humanities	–0.142	0.103	0.267**	0.119	0.076	0.048	0.004	0.058
Business	–0.032	0.080	0.088	0.094	–0.065	0.040	0.027	0.049	0.853***	0.159	–0.629***	0.174
Natural sciences	0.030	0.101	0.083	0.129	0.185***	0.053	–0.167**	0.074	0.766***	0.185	–0.328	0.270
ICT	–0.337***	0.092	0.470***	0.154	–0.153***	0.056	0.037	0.116	0.046	0.193	0.238	0.272
Engineering	–0.181**	0.078	0.180*	0.101	0.080**	0.037	0.003	0.059	0.943***	0.147	–0.652***	0.215
Agriculture	0.251*	0.135	–0.195	0.172	0.092	0.072	–0.080	0.114
Health and welfare	–0.181*	0.101	0.075	0.111	0.076	0.054	–0.165***	0.060	–0.015	0.144
Services	–0.064	0.148	0.004	0.186	0.040	0.069	–0.031	0.086
Observations	1, 536				2, 650				124
Sex	–0.934				–0.743^***	0.184			0.500^**	0.219
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–3.692		3.838		0.074	0.144	–0.273*	0.158	–0.686^***	0.141	0.947^***	0.181
Arts and humanities	0.197		–0.141		0.122	0.160	–0.218	0.184	0.015	0.163	0.301	0.227
Business	–0.103		0.136		0.028	0.130	–0.170	0.149	–0.111	0.097	0.306*	0.174
Natural sciences	0.707		–0.689		0.466^***	0.156	–0.515^***	0.184	0.218	0.155	0.058	0.229
ICT					0.037	0.120
Engineering	–0.050		0.090		0.107	0.105	–0.043	0.137	0.096	0.089	0.243	0.175
Agriculture					0.386^***	0.148	–0.293	0.195	0.222	0.167
Health and welfare	–0.064		–1.293		–1.022^***	0.133	0.866^***	0.152	0.151	0.144	0.178	0.201
Services	–0.144				0.391^***	0.119	–0.197	0.185	–0.014	0.116	0.057	0.193
Observations	562				4 449				378
Sex	–0.139	0.158			0.016	0.068			–1.513^***	0.119
Field of study
General programmes					–0.080	0.153	0.188	0.188
Education	–0.086	0.216	–0.035	0.231	–0.137^***	0.048	–0.010	0.056	–0.202^*	0.120	0.269^**	0.125
Arts and humanities	–0.088	0.178	0.139	0.188	–0.029	0.051	0.032	0.060	0.038	0.088	0.032	0.104
Business	–0.035	0.110	0.118	0.121	–0.011	0.041	0.007	0.047	0.098	0.072	–0.173*	0.089
Natural sciences	0.336^***	0.128	–0.222	0.155	0.094^**	0.046	–0.105*	0.059	–0.110	0.119	0.085	0.147
ICT	–0.002	0.122	–0.253	0.245	–0.147^***	0.045	0.023	0.073	0.144^*	0.074	–0.168	0.103
Engineering	–0.017	0.110	–0.062	0.129	–0.086^**	0.040	–0.009	0.053	–0.141^**	0.066	0.238^***	0.086
Agriculture	0.176	0.214	–0.168	0.250	0.022	0.069	–0.169*	0.090	–0.133	0.127	0.226	0.149
Health and welfare	–0.044	0.137	0.191	0.148	–0.181^***	0.055	0.013	0.061	0.057	0.091	0.032	0.103
Services	0.057	0.128	–0.091	0.160	0.110^**	0.051	–0.082	0.065	–0.315^***	0.085	0.232^**	0.102
Observations	1,088				7,379				1,443
Sex	1.095***	0.142			0.335	0.216			0.066	0.069
Field of study
General programmes					0.193	0.167
Education	0.201^**	0.087	–0.134	0.093	0.030	0.155	–0.429^**	0.170	–0.088	0.164	–0.111	0.171
Arts and humanities	–0.018	0.080	0.050	0.106	–1.120^***	0.156	0.832^***	0.179	–0.051	0.093	0.109	0.103
Business	0.104	0.069	0.016	0.083	0.024	0.134	–0.226	0.154	0.028	0.077	–0.018	0.091
Natural sciences	0.168^*	0.095	–0.352^**	0.137	0.184	0.143	–0.389^**	0.166	0.121	0.094	–0.162	0.118
ICT	–0.152^**	0.074	0.134	0.160	–0.098	0.139	–0.265	0.177	–0.415^***	0.094	0.504^***	0.161
Engineering	–0.059	0.063	–0.037	0.098	0.136	0.133	–0.297^*	0.172	–0.012	0.070	–0.054	0.096
Agriculture	0.030	0.091	0.304^**	0.120					–0.022	0.136	0.807^***	0.170
Health and welfare	–1.582^***	0.149	1.602^***	0.150	0.093	0.152	–0.399^**	0.169	0.083	0.094	–0.251^**	0.102
Services	0.210^**	0.101	–0.168	0.122	–0.169	0.180	–0.098	0.222	0.061	0.125	–0.010	0.145
Observations	1,458				939				1,943
Sex	0.380	0.252			–0.219	0.194			0.014	0.131
Field of study
General programmes									0.076	0.159
Education	1.207^***	0.130	–1.109^***	0.140	0.468^***	0.156	–0.470^***	0.170	0.103	0.081	–0.027	0.091
Arts and humanities	0.163	0.103	–0.158	0.118	–0.879^***	0.122	0.932^***	0.136	–0.165^*	0.088	0.331^***	0.101
Business	1.019^***	0.099	–0.930^***	0.104	–0.009	0.086	0.064	0.099	–0.110^*	0.060	0.159^**	0.074
Natural sciences					0.006	0.110	0.127	0.135	0.013	0.082	0.150	0.105
ICT					0.025	0.101
Engineering	0.806^***	0.117	–0.540^***	0.137	0.090	0.084	0.046	0.104	–0.136^*	0.070	0.126	0.121
Agriculture	–0.104	0.102	0.143	0.195					–0.045	0.130	0.014	0.166
Health and welfare	0.082	0.090	–0.138	0.130	–0.752^***	0.109	0.815^***	0.128	–0.118	0.089	0.098	0.099
Services	0.992^***	0.135	–1.070^***	0.188	0.013	0.100	0.112	0.127	0.011	0.070	0.010	0.091
Observations	440				914				1, 422
Sex	–0.021	0.085			0.634***	0.139			0.208	0.151
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.006	0.036	0.076^*	0.043	–0.211^*	0.108	0.426^***	0.118	–0.331^***	0.073	0.644^***	0.091
Arts and humanities	–0.048	0.046	0.072	0.056	–0.233^***	0.079	0.226^**	0.105	0.002	0.105	0.068	0.111
Business	–0.043	0.029	0.085^**	0.036	–0.139^*	0.076	0.181^*	0.096	0.132^***	0.045	–0.098^*	0.056
Natural sciences	0.044	0.043	0.116^**	0.052	–0.237	0.163	0.270	0.188	0.135	0.095	–0.026	0.115
ICT	–0.154^***	0.036	0.005	0.070					0.053	0.068	0.041	0.112
Engineering	–0.076^**	0.030	0.191^***	0.042	–0.251^***	0.074	0.222^**	0.101	–0.024	0.049	–0.039	0.066
Agriculture	0.033	0.082	0.078	0.095	0.222	0.137	–0.273^*	0.161	0.067	0.088	0.001	0.183
Health and welfare	0.020	0.048	–0.033	0.057	–0.230^**	0.090	0.191^*	0.101	0.225^**	0.104	–0.216^*	0.118
Services	0.034	0.040	0.067	0.050	0.059	0.085	–0.089	0.115	0.054	0.064	0.007	0.098
Observations	5,749				1, 063				1,		626
Sex	–0.256***	0.085			–0.106	0.115			0.062	0.138
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.891^***	0.110	0.909^***	0.131	–0.247^**	0.117	–0.148	0.156	–0.191	0.138	0.091	0.152
Arts and humanities	–0.957^***	0.124	1.172^***	0.137	0.288	0.215	–0.341	0.236	–0.051	0.076	–0.029	0.091
Business	–0.094	0.071	0.357^***	0.109	–0.143	0.100	0.141	0.126	–0.000	0.075	–0.038	0.091
Natural sciences	0.205^*	0.113	0.062	0.141	–0.115	0.135	0.161	0.180	0.018	0.079	–0.111	0.099
ICT	–0.144	0.100			–0.278^**	0.121	0.035	0.190	0.003	0.085	–0.186	0.136
Engineering	0.066	0.078	0.266^**	0.114	–0.160	0.121	–0.080	0.175	0.069	0.079	–0.054	0.115
Agriculture	0.237^**	0.108	0.124	0.161	–0.209	0.187	0.001	0.262	–1.231^***	0.100	1.180^***	0.138
Health and welfare	0.065	0.119	0.093	0.120	–0.221	0.150	0.125	0.162	–0.149	0.126	–0.097	0.136
Services	0.026	0.082			–0.029	0.129	–0.188	0.177	0.075	0.105	–0.147	0.138
Observations	565				417				1, 462

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the mode as the standard education

Overeducation measure: Mode	Cross-country sample
Country dummy	ME	SE
Austria	−0.172***	0.015
Belgium	−0.080***	0.011
Bulgaria	−0.245***	0.035
Cyprus	−0.003	0.020
Czech Republic	−0.035	0.023
Estonia	−0.134***	0.025
France	−0.011	0.018
Greece	−0.025	0.016
Hungary	0.040**	0.016
Ireland	0.069***	0.017
Italy	0.173***	0.015
Latvia	−0.052***	0.018
Lithuania	−0.004	0.027
Netherlands	0.071***	0.015
Poland	−0.249***	0.010
Portugal	−0.140***	0.017
Romania	−0.188***	0.014
Slovak Republic	−0.037*	0.020
Spain	−0.157***	0.026
United Kingdom	0.074***	0.014

Observations	34,624

Regression results—Average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Overeducation measure: 80th percentile	Cross-country sample

	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE
Inverse mills ratio	0.053***	0.018
Individual variables
Sex	−0.004	0.060
Age group (reference: 20–24 years)
25–29 years	−0.053	0.051	0.018	0.057
30–34 years	−0.017	0.050	−0.033	0.056
Foreigner	0.152***	0.014
Job variables
Firm size (ref: < 10)
11–19 persons	−0.055***	0.015
20–49 persons	−0.056***	0.013
50 and more persons	−0.036***	0.012
Temporary contract	0.059***	0.011
Working hours (in 10 hours)	−0.046***	0.005
Tenure (in 10 years)	−0.108***	0.033
Tenure squared (in 10 years)	0.047*	0.025

Observations	34,627

Regression results—average marginal effects of fields of study based on the mode as the standard education

Overeducation measure: Mode	Cross-country sample
	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE
Sex	−0.021	0.060
Field of study
General programmes	0.159	0.138	−0.288*	0.172
Education	−0.075**	0.034	−0.054	0.038
Arts and humanities	−0.069*	0.036	0.071*	0.043
Business and law	0.008	0.026	0.015	0.031
Natural sciences	0.102***	0.036	−0.045	0.045
ICT	−0.097***	0.030	−0.003	0.058
Engineering	−0.086***	0.026	0.081**	0.039
Agriculture	−0.034	0.054	0.026	0.068
Health and welfare	−0.083**	0.037	−0.025	0.041
Services	0.110***	0.034	−0.053	0.046

Observations	34,624

Country-specific regression results—average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the ISCO criterion

	Austria				Belgium				Bulgaria
	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)		Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)		Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE
Sex	0.031	0.180			0.102	0.357			0.102	0.357
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.082	0.103	0.117	0.112	1.092^***	0.372	–0.068	0.075	1.092^***	0.372	–0.724^*	0.402
Arts and humanities	–0.086	0.104	0.196	0.119	0.467	0.400	–0.012	0.075	0.467	0.400
Business	0.044	0.079	–0.012	0.093	0.355	0.218	0.109^*	0.058	0.355	0.218	0.031	0.267
Natural sciences	–0.081	0.103	0.056	0.131	0.341	0.293	–0.060	0.099	0.341	0.293	–0.142	0.352
ICT	–0.242^***	0.089	0.218	0.156	0.132	0.278	–0.019	0.144	0.132	0.278	0.331	0.324
Engineering	–0.092	0.077	0.023	0.098	0.258	0.223	–0.060	0.076	0.258	0.223	0.420	0.284
Agriculture	0.323^***	0.120	–0.243	0.153			–0.003	0.136
Health and welfare	–0.071	0.098	–0.040	0.108	0.351	0.336	–0.247^***	0.080	0.351	0.336	–0.134	0.351
Services	0.060	0.141	–0.126	0.177			0.102	0.109
Observations	1, 536				2,550				124
Sex	–0.808^***	0.191			0.294	0.253			–0.253	0.213
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.067	0.112	–0.026	0.125	0.182	0.162	–0.199	0.195	–0.627^***	0.151	0.621^***	0.171
Arts and humanities	–0.042	0.123	0.103	0.141	–1.291^***	0.171	1.267^***	0.217	–0.101	0.188	–0.085	0.226
Business	–0.190^**	0.083	0.129	0.107	–0.021	0.141	0.019	0.168	–0.287^***	0.105	0.163	0.148
Natural sciences	0.199	0.125	–0.360^**	0.151	–0.067	0.178	–0.114	0.214	0.036	0.149	–0.113	0.204
ICT					–0.050	0.134	–0.143	0.330	–0.650^***	0.118
Engineering	–0.105	0.099	–0.182	0.140	0.021	0.114	–0.077	0.157	–0.174^*	0.097	0.290^**	0.147
Agriculture					0.292^*	0.164	–0.393^*	0.223	–0.019	0.199
Health and welfare	–0.171	0.106	–0.063	0.129	0.405^***	0.144	–0.437^***	0.158	–0.240	0.153	0.540^***	0.167
Services	–0.014	0.145			0.493^***	0.145			–0.056	0.122	0.371^**	0.170
Observations	562				449				378
Sex	0.077	0.163			0.082	0.085			–1.075^***	0.142
Field of study
General programmes					0.253	0.164	0.006	0.213
Education	0.062	0.199	–0.180	0.217	–0.106^**	0.052	0.230^***	0.060	–0.152	0.136	–0.025	0.139
Arts and humanities	0.152	0.160	–0.158	0.173	0.028	0.058	0.077	0.069	–0.153	0.111	0.019	0.123
Business	0.053	0.105	–0.007	0.117	0.064	0.045	0.124^**	0.055	–0.061	0.099	–0.138	0.112
Natural sciences	0.124	0.129	–0.377^**	0.169	–0.048	0.054	0.020	0.071	–1.495^***	0.110	1.303^***	0.137
ICT	–0.021	0.113	–0.264	0.220	–0.147^***	0.051	0.054	0.086	0.044	0.097	–0.011	0.139
Engineering	–0.040	0.105	–0.171	0.123	0.104^**	0.045	–0.050	0.060	–0.036	0.095	–0.047	0.118
Agriculture	0.098	0.167	–0.157	0.207	0.016	0.077	–0.108	0.105	–0.210	0.153	–0.110	0.177
Health and welfare	–0.059	0.133	0.014	0.145	–0.147^**	0.059	0.094	0.067	–0.331^***	0.105	0.101	0.116
Services	0.224^*	0.128	–0.295^*	0.154	0.306^***	0.061	–0.056	0.082	–0.082	0.096	–0.148	0.112
Observations	1, 088				7,379				1, 443
Sex	1.330^***	0.148			0.411^*	0.219			0.038	0.079
Field of study
General programmes					0.348^*	0.184	–0.930^***	0.262
Education	0.008	0.087	0.017	0.094	–0.095	0.173	–0.386^**	0.191	–0.152	0.137	–0.029	0.146
Arts and humanities	–0.272^***	0.086	0.342^***	0.107	0.117	0.195	–0.404^*	0.222	–0.166^*	0.097	0.208*	0.110
Business	0.070	0.076	0.066	0.090	0.066	0.151	–0.268	0.175	–0.046	0.083	0.074	0.099
Natural sciences	–0.011	0.100	–0.133	0.131	0.029	0.159	–0.338^*	0.187	–0.130	0.091	0.018	0.117
ICT	–0.352^***	0.084	0.215	0.181	–0.043	0.155	–0.219	0.189	–0.025	0.118	0.176	0.156
Engineering	–0.089	0.066	–0.081	0.097	0.003	0.149	–0.358^*	0.195	–0.190^***	0.073	–0.020	0.101
Agriculture	–0.148	0.102	0.306^**	0.126					–0.154	0.140	0.205	0.193
Health and welfare	–1.895^***	0.159	1.919^***	0.160	0.010	0.171	–0.485^**	0.190	0.004	0.095	–0.036	0.104
Services	0.197^*	0.114	–0.181	0.139	0.127	0.171	–0.098	0.222	0.288^**	0.144	0.054	0.182
Observations	1, 458				939				1,943
Sex	–2.101^***	0.318			–0.171	0.235			0.460^**	0.183
Field of study
General programmes									–0.017	0.208
Education	0.258	0.233	–0.286	0.249	0.511^**	0.216	–0.449^*	0.234	0.225^*	0.116	–0.101	0.129
Arts and humanities	–1.278^***	0.176	1.244^***	0.206	–0.126	0.201	0.268	0.213	–0.072	0.120	0.229^*	0.138
Business	–0.028	0.122	0.162	0.140	0.090	0.102	–0.028	0.118	0.048	0.081	0.114	0.099
Natural sciences					–0.058	0.135	0.016	0.171	–0.065	0.114	0.282^*	0.148
ICT					–0.157	0.132	0.293	0.198
Engineering	–0.051	0.135	0.251	0.168	0.095	0.097	–0.052	0.128	–0.017	0.089	0.118	0.135
Agriculture	–2.081^***	0.190	1.966^***	0.285					0.260	0.191	–0.337	0.260
Health and welfare	–1.611^***	0.140	1.449^***	0.173	–1.461^***	0.121	1.522^***	0.148	0.131	0.104	0.019	0.117
Services	0.066	0.168	–0.151	0.256	0.113	0.123	0.029	0.170	0.323^***	0.102	–0.017	0.130
Observations	440				914				1,' 422
Sex	0.208^*	0.116			0.789^***	0.157			–0.021	0.168
Field of study
General programmes
Education	0.162^***	0.046	–0.196^***	0.054	–0.198	0.150	0.370^**	0.157	–0.847^***	0.110	1.245^***	0.122
Arts and humanities	–0.117^*	0.063	–0.005	0.073	–0.133	0.089	0.243^**	0.116	–0.061	0.115	0.202	0.128
Business	–0.047	0.037	0.000	0.045	–0.108	0.084	0.221^**	0.105	0.123^**	0.056	–0.054	0.068
Natural sciences	–0.024	0.053	–0.012	0.064	–0.217	0.191	0.227	0.220	0.136	0.135	0.039	0.151
ICT	–0.232^***	0.044	–0.257^***	0.083					–0.131	0.094	0.239^*	0.141
Engineering	–0.195^***	0.037	0.050	0.052	–0.188^**	0.084	0.171	0.112	–0.122^*	0.064	0.028	0.082
Agriculture	0.213^*	0.118	–0.320^**	0.133	0.310^*	0.166	–0.168	0.191	0.085	0.095	–0.130	0.151
Health and welfare	–0.060	0.063	–0.262^***	0.069	–0.134	0.095	0.154	0.104	0.006	0.140	–0.082	0.143
Services	0.126^**	0.055	–0.085	0.071	0.235^**	0.111	–0.031	0.151	–0.158^*	0.088	0.344^***	0.127
Observations	5, 749				1,063				1, 626
Sex	–0.176^**	0.089			0.150	0.154			–0.097	0.129
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.134	0.105	0.131	0.135	0.111	0.141	–0.247	0.185	–0.289^**	0.126	0.165	0.138
Arts and humanities	–1.257^***	0.108	1.598^***	0.135	–1.001^***	0.162	0.985^***	0.219	–0.030	0.072	0.030	0.088
Business	–0.159^**	0.077	0.448^***	0.107	0.120	0.131	–0.109	0.166	–0.063	0.069	0.015	0.087
Natural sciences	0.163	0.116	0.010	0.150	–0.050	0.165	0.141	0.223	–0.082	0.078	0.005	0.099
ICT	–0.381^***	0.129			–0.060	0.142	–0.050	0.218	–0.066	0.081	–0.168	0.131
Engineering	0.181^**	0.078	0.082	0.143	0.113	0.152	–0.400^*	0.209	–0.063	0.074	–0.038	0.115
Agriculture	0.107	0.124	0.124	0.202	–0.260	0.195	–0.136	0.311	–1.366^***	0.099	1.397^***	0.149
Health and welfare	–1.248^***	0.132	1.432^***	0.129	–0.063	0.186	–0.120	0.202	–0.224^*	0.118	–0.009	0.129
Services	0.127	0.101			0.126	0.156	–0.256	0.221	0.154	0.094	–0.151	0.135
Observations	565				417				1 ,462

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the ISCO criterion

Overeducation measure: ISCO	Cross-country sample
Country dummy	ME	SE
Austria	−0.104***	0.014
Belgium	−0.033***	0.011
Bulgaria	−0.061*	0.032
Cyprus	0.108***	0.018
Czech Republic	−0.004	0.022
Estonia	−0.067***	0.025
France	−0.030*	0.016
Greece	0.070***	0.015
Hungary	−0.056***	0.015
Ireland	−0.023	0.016
Italy	0.209***	0.014
Latvia	−0.095***	0.017
Lithuania	0.002	0.027
Netherlands	−0.124***	0.015
Poland	−0.035***	0.010
Portugal	−0.060***	0.016
Romania	−0.153***	0.014
Slovak Republic	0.015	0.020
Spain	−0.040	0.026
United Kingdom	−0.075***	0.014
Observations	34,624

Regression results—Average marginal effects of fields of study based on the ISCO-criterion

Overeducation measure: ISCO	Cross-country sample
	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE
Sex	0.065	0.061
Field of study
General programmes	0.257**	0.121	−0.277*	0.148
Education	−0.032	0.029	0.017	0.033
Arts and humanities	−0.003	0.035	0.020	0.041
Business and law	0.002	0.023	0.037	0.029
Natural sciences	−0.034	0.038	−0.032	0.046
ICT	−0.127***	0.029	−0.023	0.055
Engineering	−0.043*	0.023	−0.053	0.032
Agriculture	−0.008	0.044	−0.021	0.061
Health and welfare	−0.066*	0.036	−0.037	0.040
Services	0.170***	0.032	−0.095**	0.044

Observations	34,624

Country-specific regression results—Average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the mode as the standard education

	Austria				Belgium				Bulgaria
	Base term		Interaction sex (female with = 1)		Base term		Interaction sex (female with = 1)		Base term		Interaction sex (female with = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE	ME	SE
Sex	–0.038	0.202			–0.045	0.108			–0.065	0.351
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.224^***	0.105	0.219^*	0.114	0.024	0.071	–0.162^**	0.079	0.787^**	0.333	–0.365	0.354
Arts and humanities	–0.167	0.105	0.280^**	0.121	0.123^*	0.066	0.016	0.082	0.285	0.335	0.129	0.400
Business	0.020	0.079	0.035	0.093	–0.018	0.053	0.031	0.065	0.110	0.192	0.180	0.230
Natural sciences	0.019	0.100	0.095	0.129	0.230^***	0.077	–0.107	0.102	0.271	0.292	–0.026	0.336
ICT	–0.363^***	0.091	0.511^***	0.154	0.050	0.063	–0.223^*	0.134	0.063	0.237	0.445	0.274
Engineering	–^0.188**	0.078	0.203^**	0.101	0.140^***	0.053	0.021	0.085	0.105	0.193	0.519^**	0.243
Agriculture	0.253^*	0.134	–0.191	0.171	0.173^*	0.105	0.152	0.176
Health and welfare	–0.203^**	0.101	0.094	0.111	0.068	0.075	–0.122	0.083	0.269	0.176
Services	–0.083	0.146	0.010	0.185	0.139	0.088	0.070	0.117	–0.585^**	0.282	1.046^***	0.363
Observations	1, 536				2, 650				199
Sex	–1.307***	0.243			0.258	0.260			–0.648***	0.213
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.933^***	0.216	0.870^***	0.235	0.025	0.161	–0.246	0.184	–0.932^***	0.146	0.936^***	0.161
Arts and humanities	–0.289^*	0.172	0.320^*	0.189	–1.444^***	0.180	1.395^***	0.223	–0.233	0.168	0.129	0.209
Business	–0.420^***	0.111	0.382^***	0.135	0.021	0.141	–0.042	0.171	–0.241^**	0.099	0.177	0.149
Natural sciences	–0.070	0.210	0.089	0.229	0.630^***	0.189	–0.731^***	0.225	–0.032	0.189	0.031	0.243
ICT					–0.050	0.145	–0.215	0.311	–0.671^***	0.119
Engineering	–0.511^***	0.129	0.195	0.211	–0.004	0.121	–0.074	0.166	–0.146	0.091	0.386^**	0.151
Agriculture					0.262	0.177	–0.367	0.239	–0.062	0.188
Health and welfare	–0.347^**	0.141	0.183	0.160	0.342^**	0.153	–0.421^**	0.167	–0.182	0.141	0.412^**	0.163
Services	–0.291^*	0.163			0.526^***	0.165			–0.011	0.111	0.422^***	0.156
Observations	642				446				405
Sex	–0.014	0.181			0.010	0.079			–1.317***	0.143
Field of study
General					–0.083	0.161	0.021	0.205
programmes
Education	0.412^**	0.199	–0.238	0.214	–0.254^***	0.052	0.084	0.061	–0.379^***	0.144	0.268^*	0.149
Arts and humanities	0.305^*	0.174	–0.260	0.189	–0.174^***	0.057	0.180^***	0.067	–0.177	0.128	0.079	0.141
Business	0.142	0.115	–0.039	0.128	0.006	0.046	0.105^*	0.054	0.161	0.103	–0.420^***	0.115
Natural sciences	0.467^***	0.134	–0.428^***	0.160	0.128^**	0.053	–0.014	0.066	–0.282^*	0.158	0.170	0.179
ICT	0.102	0.124	–0.346	0.231	–0.082^*	0.049	0.110	0.076	0.138	0.108	–0.303^**	0.131
Engineering	0.057	0.117	–0.110	0.144	–0.158^***	0.045	0.183^***	0.058	–0.298^***	0.088	0.162	0.111
Agriculture	0.469^*	0.254	–0.491^*	0.289	–0.055	0.085	–0.007	0.106	–0.282^*	0.162	0.281	0.186
Health and welfare	–0.019	0.147	0.016	0.159	–0.194^***	0.055	0.024	0.063	–0.186	0.119	–0.012	0.129
Services	0.249^*	0.138	–0.262	0.169	0.145^**	0.061	0.016	0.078	–0.325^***	0.090	0.013	0.109
Observations	1, 088				7 ,379				1, 443
Sex	–0.108	0.218			0.599**	0.242			0.009	0.081
Field of study
General					0.437**	0.221
programmes
Education	0.092	0.103	–0.184^*	0.111	0.095	0.179	–0.664^***	0.210	–0.166	0.136	–0.019	0.144
Arts and humanities	–0.138	0.107	0.144	0.129	–0.142	0.206	–0.256	0.248	–0.183^*	0.097	0.217^**	0.109
Business	–0.069	0.098	0.184	0.112	0.090	0.161	–0.339^*	0.201	–0.047	0.086	0.089	0.100
Natural sciences	0.092	0.140	–0.167	0.164	0.148	0.172	–0.415^*	0.217	0.117	0.112	–0.159	0.133
ICT	–0.276^***	0.092	–0.024	0.207	–0.019	0.165	–0.309	0.222	–0.054	0.123	0.178	0.163
Engineering	–0.105	0.080	–0.141	0.116	0.116	0.159	–0.520^**	0.216	–0.158^**	0.076	–0.059	0.101
Agriculture	–0.229^*	0.126	0.621^***	0.154					–0.155	0.137	0.707^***	0.164
Health and welfare	–3.517^***	0.148	3.487^***	0.152	0.067	0.180	–0.488^**	0.215	0.008	0.099	–0.016	0.107
Services	0.168	0.118	–0.259^*	0.151	0.133	0.195	–0.435^*	0.264	0.217	0.141	0.125	0.173
Observations	1, 445				941				1,858
Sex	–2.308^***	0.293			–0.409	0.260			0.479^**	0.198
Field of study			0.231	0.249
General			1.791^***	0.197					–0.488	0.309
programmes
Education	–0.195	0.229	0.181	0.158	0.418^*	0.230	–0.408^*	0.246	0.253^**	0.126	–0.361^***	0.137
Arts and humanities	–1.744^***	0.162			–0.316	0.199	0.241	0.214	0.007	0.130	0.094	0.155
Business	–0.087	0.138			–0.060	0.106	0.209^*	0.123	0.073	0.099	–0.115	0.115
Natural sciences			0.083	0.200	–0.074	0.151	0.295	0.189	0.201	0.130	0.059	0.181
ICT			2.205^***	0.350	0.020	0.131	–0.060	0.197
Engineering	0.155	0.158	–0.179	0.289	0.074	0.101	0.160	0.138	–0.037	0.105	0.104	0.152
Agriculture	–2.016^***	0.195	0.275	0.275					0.123	0.207	–0.306	0.263
Health and welfare	0.055	0.281			1.598^***	0.123	–1.443^***	0.140	0.206^*	0.119	–0.201	0.130
Services	–0.321^*	0.187	0.231	0.249	–0.257^*	0.146	0.400^**	0.185	0.110	0.121	–0.083	0.150
Observations	430				944				1, 419
Sex	0.082	0.108			0.844^***	0.153			–0.060	0.175
Field of study
General
programmes
Education	–0.011	0.043	0.064	0.051	–0.306^**	0.155	0.483^***	0.165	–0.604^***	0.104	0.999^***	0.120
Arts and humanities	–0.133^**	0.056	0.111^*	0.066	–0.173^**	0.087	0.191^*	0.112	–0.126	0.115	0.30^**	0.128
Business	–0.027	0.034	0.021	0.042	–0.057	0.080	0.102	0.100	0.091	0.056	–0.017	0.068
Natural sciences	0.064	0.053	0.081	0.064	–0.217	0.184	0.231	0.213	0.077	0.137	0.095	0.153
ICT	–0.175^***	0.041	–0.105	0.098					–0.112	0.090	0.212	0.140
Engineering	–0.086^**	0.035	0.175^***	0.048	–0.188^**	0.081	0.091	0.107	–0.172^***	0.063	0.091	0.082
Agriculture	0.044	0.097	–0.018	0.113	0.276^*	0.161	–0.197	0.184	0.076	0.097	0.038	0.174
Health and welfare	0.015	0.055	–0.125^**	0.061	–0.130	0.091	0.076	0.100	–0.031	0.139	–0.019	0.142
Services	0.103^**	0.049	0.034	0.063	0.074	0.091	0.032	0.132	0.000	0.084	0.168	0.128
Observations	5,747				1,0 ,063				1, 641
Sex	–0.176^**	0.090			–0.105	0.181			–0.088	0.134
Field of study
General programmes
Education	–0.142	0.106	0.065	0.135	–0.083	0.176	–0.090	0.220	–0.149	0.107	–0.075	0.125
Arts and humanities	–1.129^***	0.110	1.429^***	0.141	0.342	0.263	–0.402	0.300	–0.105	0.078	–0.007	0.097
Business	–0.140^*	0.078	0.425^***	0.109	–0.077	0.161	0.079	0.194	0.002	0.075	–0.089	0.095
Natural sciences	0.336^**	0.146	–0.086	0.177	–0.105	0.211	0.183	0.278	0.005	0.084	–0.016	0.108
ICT	–0.353^***	0.128			–0.225	0.170	0.118	0.257	–0.129	0.088	–0.194	0.147
Engineering	0.287^***	0.081	–0.027	0.143	–0.041	0.184	–0.180	0.245	0.096	0.085	0.022	0.132
Agriculture	0.237^*	0.133	–0.080	0.219	–0.335	0.243	–0.071	0.370	–0.386^*	0.211	0.340	0.249
Health and welfare	–0.028	0.154	0.215	0.155	–0.263	0.209	0.162	0.226	–0.163	0.109	–0.115	0.121
Services	0.139	0.101			0.191	0.191	–0.232	0.256	0.183^*	0.105	–0.277^*	0.143
Observations	541				417				1,448

Regression results—average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the ISCO criterion

Overeducation measure: ISCO	Cross-country sample
	Base term		Interaction with sex (female = 1)
	ME	SE	ME	SE
Inverse mills ratio	0.055***	0.018
Individual variables
Sex	0.065	0.061
Age group (reference 20–24 years)
25–29 years	−0.093*	0.051	−0.007	0.058
30–34 years	−0.150***	0.050	−0.042	0.057
Foreigner	0.048***	0.015
Job variables
Firm size (reference < 10 persons)
11−19 persons	−0.002	0.016
20−49 persons	−0.033**	0.014
50 and more persons	−0.063***	0.012
Temporary contract	−0.004	0.012
Working hours (in 10 hours)	−0.072***	0.006
Tenure (in 10 years)	−0.051	0.035
Tenure squared (in 10 years)	0.067***	0.026

Observations	34,624

eISSN:: 2193-9004
Language:: English

Publication timeframe:: Volume Open
Journal Subjects:: Business and Economics, Political Economics, Microeconomics, Macroecomics, Economic Policy, Mathematics and Statistics for Economists, Econometrics

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Patterns of Overeducation in Europe: The Role of Field of Study

Published Online: Jul 27, 2019

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2019-0003

Keywords
college major, country-specific effects, EU countries, field of study, gender, labor force survey, overeducation, realized matches, vertical mismatch

© 2019 Anja Rossen, Christina Boll, André Wolf, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

Figure 1

Figure A1

Regression results for fields of study based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the mode as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Country-specific regression results—average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the mode as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Regression results—average marginal effects of fields of study based on the mode as the standard education

Country-specific regression results—average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the ISCO criterion

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the ISCO criterion

Regression results—Average marginal effects of fields of study based on the ISCO-criterion

Country-specific regression results—Average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the mode as the standard education

Regression results—average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the ISCO criterion

Patterns of Overeducation in Europe: The Role of Field of Study

Published Online: Jul 27, 2019

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2019-0003

Keywordscollege major, country-specific effects, EU countries, field of study, gender, labor force survey, overeducation, realized matches, vertical mismatch

© 2019 Anja Rossen, Christina Boll, André Wolf, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

Figure 1

Figure A1

Regression results for fields of study based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the mode as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Country-specific regression results—average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the mode as the standard education

Regression results—Average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the 80th percentile as the standard education

Regression results—average marginal effects of fields of study based on the mode as the standard education

Country-specific regression results—average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the ISCO criterion

Regression results—Average marginal country effects in the cross-country sample based on the ISCO criterion

Regression results—Average marginal effects of fields of study based on the ISCO-criterion

Country-specific regression results—Average marginal effects of the field-of-study dummy variables based on the mode as the standard education

Regression results—average marginal effects of non-field-of-study-related variables in the cross-country sample based on the ISCO criterion

Keywords
college major, country-specific effects, EU countries, field of study, gender, labor force survey, overeducation, realized matches, vertical mismatch