Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The 'Incidence' and 'Wage Effects' of Mismatch among Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Graduates

A new ESRI working paper by Delma Byrne and Seamus McGuinness looks at mismatch in the graduate labour market among immigrants and second-generation ethnic minority groups. As in other studies of a similar nature (some of which have been discussed on this blog before: Bender and Heywood; 2006 (and Robst; 2007); Nordin/Persson/Rooth; 2008; Budria and Moro-Egido; 2004), the focus is to estimate the incidence and wage effects of over-education and overskilling.

In the Byrne and McGuinness paper, the graduates come from UK universities. The results show that immigrant and second-generation ethnic minority graduates are no more likely to experience education or skill mismatch relative to their native counterparts. Furthermore, graduates from immigrant and ethnic minority backgrounds incur overeducation and overskilling wage penalties that lie well below the level incurred by native graduates.

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