Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/202328 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Citation: 
[Journal:] Social Science Research [ISSN:] 0049-089X [Volume:] 83 [Article No.:] 102314 [Publisher:] Elsevier [Place:] Amsterdam [Year:] 2019 [Pages:] 1-20
Publisher: 
Elsevier, Amsterdam
Abstract: 
We use PIAAC data on the literacy and numeracy skills of 49,366 25-to-54-year-olds in 27 countries to shed new light on cross-national variation in the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults (i.e., those who have not completed upper secondary education). Our empirical analysis focuses on the occupational status gap between less-educated adults and those with a degree at the upper secondary level and yields three main findings. First, individual-level differences in literacy and numeracy skills are an important source of cross-national variation in labor market inequalities by educational attainment, but substantial gaps in occupational status remain even after accounting for individuals' actual skills and further socio-demographics. Second, this remaining occupational status gap rises with a country's level of “skills transparency” (i.e., the extent to which formal qualifications are more informative about actual skills): labor market gaps increase as the skills gap between the two educational groups increases and as the within-group distribution of skills becomes more homogeneous. Third, country differences in skills transparency seem to be the primary mediating channel for the inequality-enhancing effect of tracking in secondary education found in previous research.
Subjects: 
education
inequality
social stratification
international comparison
skills
PIAAC
Published Version’s DOI: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Accepted Manuscript (Postprint)

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