Wage Effects of Overeducation Evidence from Poland

Abstract

The educational expansion in many advanced economies in the past few
decades has triggered a debate on overeducation. The aim of the study is to
provide an empirical evaluation of the wage effects of overeducation in different
occupational groups. We also analyse whether these effects differ between
genders. In order to achieve this, we use individual data from the Structure of
Wages and Salaries by Occupations database of firms with 10 or more employees
in Poland. We use data from the 2006-2014 waves of the survey. We calculate the
impact of overeducation on wages using a Mincer-type wage regression model.
We show that on average workers are rewarded for being overeducated, but
the size of wage effects of overeducation differs among particular occupational
groups. We show also that the choice of the method of measurement of
overeducation affects the results.