Mallorqui Ruscalleda, Nuria;
(2021)
Human Capital Investment and Labour Market Response in Spain.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The supply of highly educated workers has increased in most developed countries since the 1970s. However, in many countries the demand for these workers has not increased as rapidly as the supply, and education and skill mismatches have appeared. In Spain, the increase of university graduates started in the 1980s, and nowadays, Spain has one of the highest proportions of over-educated workers. Focusing on Spain, this thesis provides new empirical evidence on the education mismatch for university graduates in the Spanish labour market. First, I analyse the trend in the likelihood of university graduates being over-educated from 1995 to 2018. Second, I assess the effect that including cognitive skills heterogeneity has on the probability of being over-educated. Third, I foresee three possible scenarios for the future trend of the proportion of university graduates overeducated in the Spanish labour market. The results of the research demonstrate that first, the Spanish economy, and especially the private sector in Spain, has not adapted its jobs to the increase of the higher educated workers, especially for women. Second, accounting for skills’ heterogeneity has little effect on the probability for university graduates being over-educated, even if it is small. Third, given the forecasted trend in the probability for a university graduate to be over-educated in the Spanish labour market some changes in the educational and labour market policies are needed to propel an improvement of the education match for university graduates in the Spanish labour market. Regarding policy implications, the results of this research suggest modifying the supply of and facilitating the demand for highly educated workers. On the supply side, those degrees which are more demanded in the labour market should be promoted, whereas it is recommended to change the education programme in those degrees which are less demanded in the labour market. In this sense, for instance, introducing some work experience might help to increase its suitability in the labour market. On the demand side, skill-biased technological change increasing the demand for skilled workers should be promoted.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Human Capital Investment and Labour Market Response in Spain |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121373 |
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