Search

This study examines the direct and indirect impact (via educational achievement) of student work during secondary education on later employment outcomes. To this end, we jointly model student work and later schooling and employment outcomes as a chain of discrete choices. To tackle their endogeneity, we correct for these outcomes' unobserved determinants. Using unique longitudinal Belgian data, we find that pupils who work during the summer holidays of secondary education are 15.3% more likely to have a job three months after leaving school. This premium to student work experience is higher when pupils also work during the academic year and diminishes for later employment outcomes. When decomposing this total effect, it turns out that the direct returns to student work overcompensate its non-positive indirect effect via tertiary education enrolment.

We review the theories put forward, methodological approaches used, and empirical conclusions found in the multidisciplinary literature on the relationship between student employment and educational outcomes. A systematic comparison of the empirical work yields new insights that go beyond the overall reported negative effect of more intensive working schemes and that are of high academic and policy relevance. One such insight uncovered by our review is that student employment seems to have a more adverse effect on educational choices and behaviour (study engagement and the decision to continue studying) than on educational performance (in particular, graduation).

We investigate the impact of student work experience on later hiring chances. To completely rule out potential endogeneity, we present a field experiment in which various forms of student work experience are randomly disclosed by more than 1000 fictitious graduates applying for jobs in Belgium. Theoretical mechanisms are investigated by estimating heterogeneous treatment effects by the relevance and timing of revealed student work experience. We find that neither form of student work experience enhances initial recruitment decisions. For a number of candidate subgroups (by education level and occupation type), even an adverse effect is found.

We investigate the impact of student work experience on later hiring chances. To completely rule out potential endogeneity, we present a field experiment in which various forms of student work experience are randomly disclosed by more than 1000 fictitious graduates applying for jobs in Belgium. Theoretical mechanisms are investigated by estimating heterogeneous treatment effects by the relevance and timing of revealed student work experience. We find that neither form of student work experience enhances initial recruitment decisions. For a number of candidate subgroups (by education level and occupation type), even an adverse effect is found.

Tout comme les pays scandinaves et l'Autriche, la Belgique connait un taux de syndicalisation assez élevé. Un peu plus de 50 % des salariés belges sont membres d'un syndicat (http://www.uva-aias.net/208). Par ailleurs, le niveau de syndicalisation est plus élevé parmi les salariés jeunes et âgés que parmi ceux d'un âge intermédiaire (Van Rie et al., 2011). Plus important encore, le taux de couverture, à savoir la fraction des salariés dont les conditions d'emploi sont régies par une convention collective de travail, est de l'ordre de 90 % en Belgique (http://www.uva-aias.net/208). Enfin, dans notre pays, les syndicats gardent un rôle important dans l'octroi des allocations de chômage (Van Rie et al., 2011). De ce fait, les syndicats constituent un acteur incontournable sur le marché du travail belge.

We study the causal impact of revealing pro-unionism during the recruitment stage on hiring chances. To this end, we conduct a randomised field experiment in the Belgian labour market. When matched with employer and sector data, the experimentally gathered data enable us to test the heterogeneity of discrimination against pro-union applicants by the union density in the sector and the size of the firm. We find that disclosure of pro-unionism affects hiring chances in a negative way and that – in line with our expectations based on the literature – this negative impact is stronger in highly unionised sectors.

This study assesses the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement. We survey college students about their sleep quality by means of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) before the start of their first exam period at university. PSQI scores are matched with course marks in this first exam period. Instrumenting PSQI scores by sleep quality during secondary education, we find that increasing total sleep quality with one standard deviation leads to 4.85 percentage point higher course marks.

This study assesses hiring discrimination based on disclosed depression. We send out pairs of job applications from fictitious unemployed candidates to real vacancies in Belgium. Within each pair, one candidate cites depression as the reason for her/his unemployment, whereas the other candidate reveals no reason for unemployment. Overall, the hypothesis that applicants disclosing former depression are treated unfavourably is rejected. However, if we break up the data by the gender of the recruiter, we see that revealing former depression as a reason for unemployment is rewarded by female recruiters, whereas it affects the hiring decisions made by male recruiters in a non-positive way.

We analyse the relation between formal education and skill acquisition (SA) on-the-job for a sample of Flemish school leavers. SA is measured both indirectly through training participation and directly through subjective assessments. Formal education is found to reinforce labour market inequality since additional years of education enhance the probability on all types of SA. This impact is, with respect to general SA, higher for generally than for vocationally educated individuals. Particularly between-occupation effects of education explain these outcomes: jobs that require more years of formal education typically also require more additional training and skill acquisition. Within occupations, we find some limited evidence on both dominant complementary and substitution effects. Undereducated workers have lower overall training and SA probabilities than adequately educated workers in similar occupations; overeducated workers acquire less transferable or general skills than their adequately educated colleagues. Since overeducated workers work in jobs with less additional SA requirements, they also acquire less additional skills than adequately educated workers with a similar educational background.

It is generally found that overeducated workers earn less than adequately educated workers with similar years of education. We investigate whether this finding may be attributed to worker heterogeneity on the basis of panel data for Flemish school leavers and job analysis measurement. The estimated overeducation penalty at labour market entry diminishes but remains statistically significant after the inclusion of individual fixed effects. Yet, this penalty is found to drop with years of work experience. Our outcomes suggest that this drop results at least partly from the selection of overeducated individuals into better paying industries and firms.

status: published

We analyse the determinants of overeducation among school leavers within a search theoretical framework. Overeducation is measured on the basis of job analysis (JA), the required level to get the job (RL) and realised matches (RM). It is shown that the choice of the measure is crucial for the outcome of the analysis. Job levels easured by RL and RM are clearly biased. Hence, only a few results are robust: higher qualified individuals occupy higher complexity jobs and overeducation is less prevalent among school leavers with better study results and in small organizations. Conversely, JA generally delivers results that are consistent with theoretical considerations. Based on JA, overeducation is also lower among men, whites, school leavers with higher educated parents, search intensive individuals and school leavers from higher quality institutions. Furthermore, overeducated workers are more often hired in occupations without structural bottleneck vacancies and in the financial and professional services sector. Additionally, irrespective of the used measure, heterogeneous requirements within complexity levels explain a significant but small part of the extent of overeducation. ispartof: Ghent University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Papers vol:2004 issue:216 nrpages: 37 status: published

Based on three definitions, we measure overeducation among Flemish labour market entrants and investigate its determinants to test the validity of different theories and to shed more light on the validity of the measures themselves. Depending on the measurement method, overeducation varies in the first job from 26 to 54%. Looking for the determinants of mismatch, the results differ for the various measures and schooling levels. We find clear evidence that the probability of overeducation is lower for search intensive individuals, individuals with better study results and for jobs in small firms. Furthermore, overeducation differs greatly among jobs in different occupations and industries. These results are largely explained by the difficulties that some occupations and industries have to fill their vacancies. As expected, the measure based on job analysis delivers the most consistent results. However, we find indications that part of the mismatch, measured by job analysis and to a lesser extent by indirect self-assessment, results from differences in job complexity. ispartof: Ghent University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Papers vol:2002 issue:141 nrpages: 40 status: published