The Impact of Surplus Schooling on Earnings: Some Additional Findings

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of overeducation (or surplus schooling) on earnings. Overeducated workers are defined as those with educational attainments substantially above the mean for their specific occupations. Two models are estimated using data from the 1980 census. Though our models, data, and measure of overeducation are different from those used by Rumberger (1987), our results are similar. Our results show that overeducated workers often earn less than their adequately educated and undereducated counterparts.