Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Rama, Apoorva
Language:	English
Published:	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2019
Subjects:	Economics
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1574248733672506

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spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu15742487336725062021-08-03T07:13:15Z Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching Rama, Apoorva Economics This dissertation is comprised of three chapters on education economics, focusing on college graduates transitioning into the labor market. In the first chapter, “Multidimensional Skill Mismatch among College Graduates,” I use college transcript data from a sample of college graduates in the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and occupational descriptors from the Occupation Information Network (O*NET) database to develop a novel “skill mismatch” index. This index measures the distance between a vector of skills acquired in college and a vector of skills required in the post-college occupation. By assessing various skill groups (mathematics, language, etc.), the skill mismatch index treats both workers and occupations as multidimensional entities. I provide evidence that the skill mismatch index is a refinement over previously developed empirical mismatch measures that rely on degree or college major to define mismatch. In the second chapter, “Measuring the STEM Wage Premium Among College Graduates,” I estimate the wage benefits associated with training in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and assess the sensitivity of the STEM wage premium to changes in the way STEM is measured. Measuring STEM can differ in two ways: the definition of STEM (i.e., determining what fields are STEM) and incorporating STEM training into the empirical analysis with a dichotomous or continuous measure of STEM training. Using a sample of college graduates with college transcript data in the NLSY97, I compare a total of six measures STEM training: for three different definitions of STEM (based on lists published by three different U.S. government agencies), I construct a continuous measure of STEM training (based on the amount of STEM coursework completed in college) and a dichotomous measure (based on if the worker completed a STEM major). Although the results confirm the general finding that there is a STEM wage premium, they demonstrate that estimates of that premium are relatively insensitive to the definition of STEM training but highly sensitive to whether a dichotomous or continuous measure is used. In the third chapter, “Education and Job Matching: A Two Cohort Comparison,” I compare the incidence and log-wage penalty of overeducation and undereducation among two generations of college graduates. Mismatch is defined based on degree, where a worker is classified as overeducated (undereducated) is he completes a degree that is greater (less) than what is required by his occupation. Data for the older cohort (born 1957-1964) is from the NLSY79 and the younger cohort (born 1980-1984) from the NLSY97. By directly comparing these two cohorts, this study provides unique insight into how the estimated overeducation/undereducation wage penalty has changed over the last few decades. When conditioning on a rich array of observables, the estimated overeducation wage penalty during the early career is roughly the same for men and women in both the older and younger cohorts. The estimated returns to undereducation shift from a small, not significant effect for the older cohort to a substantial, significant effect for the younger cohort. 2019 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1574248733672506 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1574248733672506 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	Economics
spellingShingle	Economics Rama, Apoorva Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching
author	Rama, Apoorva
author_facet	Rama, Apoorva
author_sort	Rama, Apoorva
title	Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching
title_short	Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching
title_full	Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching
title_fullStr	Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching
title_full_unstemmed	Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching
title_sort	essays on higher education and job matching
publisher	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate	2019
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1574248733672506
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Essays on Higher Education and Job Matching

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