Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Levels, M. Author-workplace-name: Macro, International & Labour Economics Author-Name: van der Velden, R.K.W. Author-workplace-name: Research Centre for Educ and Labour Mark Author-Name: Allen, J.P. Author-workplace-name: Research Centre for Educ and Labour Mark Title: Educational mismatches and skills: New empirical tests of old hypotheses Abstract: In this paper, we empirically explore how the often reported relationship between overeducation and wages can best be understood. Exploiting the newly published Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data (OECD 2013), we are able to achieve a better estimation of the classical ORU-model (Duncan and Hoffman, 1981), by controlling for heterogeneity of observable skills. Our findings suggest that 1) a considerable part of the effect of educational mismatches can be attributed to skills heterogeneity, and 2) that the extent to which skills explain educational mismatches varies by institutional contexts. These observations suggest that skills matter for explaining wage effects of education and educational mismatches, but the extent to which this is the case also depends on institutional contexts. Series: GSBE Research Memoranda Creation-Date: 20130101 Number: 062 File-URL: https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/1717569/guid-07278325-0609-444d-a58e-cd77da000946-ASSET1.0.pdf File-Format: application/pdf File-Size: 426927 Handle: Repec:unm:umagsb:2013062 DOI: 10.26481/umagsb.2013062