{"title":"The productivity benefits of overeducation","authors":"Miana Plesca, F. Summerfield","doi":"10.1086/726630","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Overeducation is an issue of concern in the public discourse that has implications for aggregate labor productivity. Extending a literature focused on individual outcomes, we find productivity-enhancing effects in Canadian data by province and industry spanning 1997–2015. Dynamic panel models with external instruments show that productivity increases by about 3% for each 1% increase in the overeducation shares. Effects are largest among industries with more intangible capital investment or with more jobs that require university education and among small-firm employees that are not unionized. Our results provide yet another argument for the benefits of postsecondary education.","PeriodicalId":46011,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Capital","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Human Capital","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726630","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Overeducation is an issue of concern in the public discourse that has implications for aggregate labor productivity. Extending a literature focused on individual outcomes, we find productivity-enhancing effects in Canadian data by province and industry spanning 1997–2015. Dynamic panel models with external instruments show that productivity increases by about 3% for each 1% increase in the overeducation shares. Effects are largest among industries with more intangible capital investment or with more jobs that require university education and among small-firm employees that are not unionized. Our results provide yet another argument for the benefits of postsecondary education.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Human Capital is dedicated to human capital and its expanding economic and social roles in the knowledge economy. Developed in response to the central role human capital plays in determining the production, allocation, and distribution of economic resources and in supporting long-term economic growth, JHC is a forum for theoretical and empirical work on human capital—broadly defined to include education, health, entrepreneurship, and intellectual and social capital—and related public policy analyses. JHC encompasses microeconomic, macroeconomic, and international economic perspectives on the theme of human capital. The journal offers a platform for discussion of topics ranging from education, labor, health, and family economics.