Not the right job but a secure one : over-education and temporary employment in France, Italy and Spain

Ortiz Gervasi, Luis

Not the right job but a secure one : over-education and temporary employment in France, Italy and Spain

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Ortiz Gervasi, L. Not the right job but a secure one : over-education and temporary employment in France, Italy and Spain. 2008. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2072/10409

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Abstract

Resorting to four waves of the European Community Household Panel, this research explores the association between temporary employment and the likelihood of being over-educated. Such an association has been largely ignored by the literature explaining over-education, more inclined to attribute such a mismatch to the system of education. Selecting three similarly standarised and stratified systems of education (France, Italy and Spain) and controlling for many other variables likely to affect over-education, like gender, age, tenure, job change, firm size or sector, the paper demonstrates that such an association between temporary employment and over-education exists. Being a stepping stone towards a more stable and adjusted position in the labour market, holding a temporary employment may be associated to a higher likelihood of being over-educated. Such an association is more likely in Italy and France. Yet, the opposite sign prevails where permanent employment becomes such a valuable asset as to make individuals trade human capital by employment security. This is the case of Spain.