Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/174075 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11165
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We test for the signalling hypothesis versus human capital theory using the Wiles test (1974) in a country which has experienced a dramatic increase in the supply of skills. For this purpose, we construct a job match index based on the usefulness of the school-provided skills and the relevance of the job performed to the field of study. Then we regress the first earnings of graduates on this index using OLS and Heckit to control for omitted heterogeneity of the employed. The data we use come from a representative tracer survey of Poles who left secondary schools or graduated from HEIs over the period of 1998-2005. We find that only the HEI graduates obtain a wage premium from skills acquired in the course of formal education. This finding is robust to a large number of robustness checks with different indicators of the educational mismatch and instrumental variables.
Subjects: 
education
skills
signalling
job matching
wages
Heckman correction
JEL: 
I26
J24
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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