A Mismatch Made in Heaven: A Hedonic Analysis of Overeducation and Undereducation‪.‬

1. Introduction Over the past two decades, there has been much concern by researchers and policymakers over the apparent lack of coordination between the labor market and the education system that leads some workers to have educational qualifications in excess of those specified for the job (overeducation) and others to have less (undereducation). Cross-sectional studies using U.S., European, and Asian data sources indicate that between 30% and 40% of workers have educational qualifications that either exceed or fall short of firm requirements at a particular point in time (e.g., Sicherman and Galor 1991; Alba-Ramirez 1993; Ng 2001). Moreover, a meta-analysis by Groot and Maassen van den Brink (2000) shows no significant change in the extent of this mismatch between workers and firms over the past 20 years. Thus, overeducation and undereducation appear to be pervasive and persistent phenomena in industrialized countries.