"Overeducation is one of the most important mechanisms for labor market adjustment when there is an excess supply of high-skilled workers. However, there is much debate about the consequences of this phenomena and the short and long term effects for both the overeducated worker and the economy as a whole. This book contributes to our understanding of recent developments in the research on overeducation by providing a detailed overview of the pertinent theoretical and policy issues."

Analyzes the 1970s downturn in the labor market for college-educated manpower, considers consequences for educational institutions, and explores policies for alleviating the situation. Bibliogs

Economists and social scientists consider the two views of people working at jobs that do not require as much educations they have. One faction contends that the practice wastes skills and worsens the labor market position of less educated workers. The other faction emphasizes the importance of knowledge as a means of increasing international competitiveness. Among the topics are whether the Finnish labor market has bumped the least educated, over-education and crowding out low-skilled workers, an empirical test of the effect of bumping down on wages, whether more high-skilled workers occupy simple jobs during bad times, and job competition in the Dutch labor market. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

USA. Monograph on labour market problems resulting from discrepancies betwen higher education educational level and actual job requirements, causing a surplus in university graduate labour supply - presents definitions of overeducation as well as human capital theoretical explanations, analyses research methods and research results for interpreting trends between 1960 and 1976 (incl. Projections to 1985), and considers implications for job satisfaction, performance and workers' health, labour policy, etc. Bibliography pp. 129 to 143 and graphs.

The recent recession has led to an ongoing crisis in the youth labour market in Europe. This timely book deals with a number of areas related to the context, choices and experiences of young people, the consequences of which resonate throughout their lives. The focus of the contributions to this volume is on issues which, whilst undoubtedly important, have thus far received less attention than they arguably deserve. The first part of the book is concerned with issues related to education and training, covering matters such as the role of monopsony in training, the consequences of over-education, and the quality of educational institutions from primary to tertiary. The second part is primarily concerned with the long-term consequences of short-term choices and experiences including contributions on health-related choices, health consequences later in life, factors affecting the home-leaving decision, as well as an analysis of the increasing intergenerational transmission of inequality; a trend which accelerated during the recession. The last part of the book deals with issues related to youth unemployment and NEET – the direct consequence of the recession. This book contains a number of innovative analyses reporting significant findings that contrast with standard models. Some of the more interesting results directly contradict conventional wisdom on a number of topics from the importance of monopsony in training markets to the importance of transitory income changes on consumption of addictive goods. This book is suitable for those who study labor economics, political economy as well as employment and unemployment.

This paper surveys the economics literature on overeducation. The original motivation to study this topic were reports that the strong increase in the number of college graduates in the early 1970s in the US led to a decrease in the returns to college education. We argue that Duncan and Hoffman's augmented wage equation -- the workhorse model in the overeducation literature -- in which wages are regressed on years of overschooling, years of required schooling and years of underschooling is at best loosely related to this original motivation. We discuss measurement and estimation issues and give an overview of the main empirical findings in this literature. Finally we given an appraisal of the economic lessons learned.