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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.06.005
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Lack of skills or formal qualifications? New evidence on cross-country differences in the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults
[journal article]
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 ... view more
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.... view less
Keywords
competence; arithmetic; demographic factors; school graduation; qualification; deprivation; inequality; international comparison; adult; writing; level of education; reading; social factors; career prospect
Classification
Sociology of Education
Labor Market Research
Free Keywords
PIAAC (rounds 1 and 2); skills; social stratification
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 1-20
Journal
Social Science Research (2019) 83
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/202328
ISSN
1096-0317
Status
Postprint; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0