Over education and the great recession. The case of italian PH.D graduates

This paper evaluates the impact of the Great Recession on Ph.D over-education using data drawn from four annual cohorts of Ph.D graduates surveyed by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. Over-education is examined through the definitions of both over-skilling and over-qualification.The results show that over-skilling is positively associated with the Great Recession, whereas the relationship between the crisis and over-qualification is statistically significant only when the estimated model includes interaction terms for the crisis and jobs within academia or R&D-related sectors. More generally, working on research-based activities and study experience abroad are always significant drivers to overcome any kind of job mismatch. Conversely, being self-employed increases the risk of over-education, casting some doubts on the satisfactory additionality of Ph.D employment trajectories beyond academia and research. Finally, in contrast with previous results for graduates, we find that socio-demographic variables do not exert a significant influence on Ph.D over-education. Suggested Citation