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In this article, we present and test a model that incorporates education-occupation matching into the migration decision. The literature on education-occupation matching shows that earnings are affected by how individuals' education matches that required by their occupation. Accordingly, individuals with more schooling than required by their occupation have an additional incentive to migrate: the increase in earnings that occurs with a more beneficial education-occupation match. Using data from Mexico, we found statistical support for the importance of education-occupation matching in migration decisions. Education-occupation matching provides a plausible explanation for the mixed findings in the literature on the relationship between educational attainment and migration.

Using a human capital theory framework, this study examines the impact of educational mismatches on earnings and occupational mobility. Occupational mobility theory suggests that overeducated workers observe greater upward occupational mobility and undereducated workers observe lower upward occupational mobility. By extension, this leads to relatively high earnings growth for overeducated workers and relatively low earnings growth for undereducated workers. Moreover, overeducated workers are probably transient relative to their undereducated counterparts, so employers have few incentives to invest in their human capital. Accordingly, their experience will be rewarded at lower rates. These results may also occur if the unused human capital of overeducated workers depreciates with nonuse. The data verify these predictions. Insights on the link between experience and educational mismatches are also examined.Human capital, overeducation, occupational mobility,