Heaven knows I'm miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction

Abstract

This study is an investigation into relative overeducation and life satisfaction using British longitudinal data. The focus is on young people rather than the whole of the life cycle, an arguably more homogenous group. Such a focus means that the overeducation variable does not simply capture the increased participation in Higher Education of the young. The hypothesis is that there is a negative relationship between being overeducated and life satisfaction. Overeducation is measured using the realised matches approach, a statistical measurement comparing an individual's years of schooling with the average for one of two employment based reference groups. Using dynamic panel analysis, to account for the presence of serial correlation, such an association is found: the relatively overeducated seem to be relatively less happy.

General education, vocational education and skill mismatches: short-run versus long-run effects

“…Secondly, skill mismatches are also found to have a more direct negative effect on individual well-being. Apart from being associated with lower job satisfaction (Allen and van der Velden, 2001;Green and Zhu, 2010;Mavromaras et al, 2013), skill underutilisation seems to result in reduced life satisfaction, happiness and mental health (Bracke et al, 2013;Artés et al, 2014;Piper, 2015;Zhu and Chen, 2016). Our study is therefore complementary to studies focussing on other outcomes and should allow to make a more comprehensive assessment of the extent to which the relative effects of vocational versus general education on individual well-being change over the life course.…”

Skills Mismatch: Concepts, Measurement and Policy Approaches

“…While some studies indicate that overeducation leads to lower job and life satisfaction (see, e.g. Verhaest and Omey, ; Peiró et al ., ; Diem, ; Piper, ; Congregado et al ., ), others find that is only the case when overeducation is also accompanied by overskilling (see, e.g. Green and Zhu, ; Sloane, ).…”

Europe’s Capital Cities and the Happiness Penalty: An Investigation Using the European Social Survey

“…With these advances, economists have been able to investigate the relationship between well-being and many other variables. Recent examples include the consumption of fruit and vegetables (Blanchflower et al 2012), genes (De Neue et al 2010), immigrant well-being and bilateral relations (Becchetti et al 2011), overeducation (Piper 2012a) and poverty (Clark et al 2013). All of these studies, presented as a recent snapshot of many more, take advantage of 'happiness' data to investigate the complex concept of human utility.…”