The Theory of Differential Overqualification: Does it Work?

By F. Büchel, H. Battu. Social Science Research Network, 2003

149 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The theory of differential overqualification, developed by Robert Frank (1978), claims that married women in smaller labor markets have a higher risk of working in jobs for which they are overqualified. This stems from the problem of dual job search for couples which is much more difficult to optimize than single job search. Here, for several reasons husbands tend to first optimize their individual job search. Their wives are "tied movers" or "tied stayers" in the sense that their job search is undertaken under the condition that the job search of their husbands is optimized. This leads especially in smaller labor markets to a higher risk of a mismatch between formal qualifications and job requirements. The only specific empirical test of this theory, until now, has been performed by McGoldrick and Robst (1996). Their results, using US data, do not support the theory. Using German panel data (GSOEP), we also test the theory of differential overqualification. Unlike previous studies we control for commuting distances and our own results provide some mixed support for the differential overqualification hypothesis.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Gender Studies, Political Science and International Relations

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/53b09737c24952241ed3b87aceb31fb40efb751f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

In Gender Studies

In Political Science and International Relations

Citations in the corpus

Education, College Major, and Job Match: Gender Differences in Reasons for Mismatch (2007, result): “While McGoldrick and Robst (1996) were unable to find support for this hypothesis regarding overeducation, Buchel and Battu (2003) found results consistent with Frank’s (1978) hypothesis.”
Overeducation in the Labour Market (2006, unknown): “Buchel and Battu (2003) report that, after controlling for distance to work, both married males and females living in rural locations are more likely to be overeducated.”
Is there a genuine under-utilization of skills amongst the over-qualified? (2007, background): “One of the most thorough tests of such ideas can be found in Büchel and Battu (2003).”
Five Characteristics of Youth Unemployment in Europe (2015, background): “While some limited research has been carried out with regard to gender differences in rates of over-education (Buchel & Battu, 2003; Buchel & van Ham, 2002; McGoldrick & Robst, 1996), no work has been carried out with regard to the youth labor market or in terms of more recent concepts of mismatch…”
HOUSING TENURE, JOB MOBILITY AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UK* (2008, background): “A significant body of research broadly confirms this hypothesis and the deleterious impact on labour market outcomes (McGoldrick and Robst, 1996; Büchel and Battu, 2003; Nivalainen, 2004).”