Human capital or signaling? Differences in skills distributions and the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults across 21 countries.

Autor/inn/en	Heisig, Jan Paul; Gesthuizen, Maurice; Solga, Heike
Titel	Human capital or signaling? Differences in skills distributions and the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults across 21 countries. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Humankapital oder Signal? Unterschiede der Qualifikationsstruktur und der berufliche Nachteil von geringqualifizierten Erwachsenen in 21 Ländern.
Quelle	(2016), 43 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	SocArXiv Papers
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monographie
DOI	10.31235/osf.io/wc4s9
Schlagwörter	Fremdeinschätzung; Kognitive Kompetenz; Bildungsertrag; Bildungsabschluss; Diskriminierung; Personalauswahl; Ausbildung; Arbeitsmarktchance; Berufliche Stellung; Mittlere Berufsausbildung; Niedrig Qualifizierter; Internationaler Vergleich; Benachteiligung; OECD (Organisation für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung); Absolvent
Abstract	"Less-educated adults bear the highest risk of labor market marginalization in all advanced economies, but the extent of their disadvantage differs considerably across countries. Exploiting unique data on the actual skills of adults from PIAAC 2011/12, we examine two prominent explanations for this cross-country variation. Human capital theory suggests that the marginalization of less-educated individuals reflects a lack of skills. The signaling explanation emphasizes the role of educational credentials as easy-to-observe proxies for skills and productivity. It suggests that the skills distribution of educational groups can affect their labor market position beyond any individual-level effect of skills by influencing the signaling value or 'skills transparency' of educational credentials. Applying a two-step regression approach to a sample of 48,033 adults in 21 countries, we find support for both explanations. Consistent with human capital theory, literacy and numeracy skills are positively related to occupational status at the individual level and partly account for cross-national differences in the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults. Yet, cross-country variation remains considerable even after controlling for skills and further key observables. Consistent with the signaling account, country-level regressions show that the remaining variation is related to two direct measures of skills transparency: the aggregate skills differential between less- and intermediate-educated adults and the internal homogeneity of these groups. We also find that the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults increases with the vocational orientation of secondary education, presumably reflecting individual- and aggregate-level effects of occupation-specific skills, which were not assessed in PIAAC." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2020/3