Why does field of study–occupation mismatch have no effect on wages in Turkish labour markets?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Turkish labour market has undergone remarkable changes in the last two decades. An important development is the rising number of university graduates: The aim of this study is to explore whether the Turkish economy has undergone sufficient technological progress to favour more skilled workers, by analysing the effects of skill mismatch on wages in the Turkish labour market. Using three recent Labour Force Surveys from 2014 to 2016, we show that a significant proportion of university graduates are overeducated for their jobs. This descriptive finding in itself would not necessarily indicate a fundamental education-specific mismatch problem, but a transition in labour markets following rapid structural shifts in a developing economy. However, our findings also show that the most suitable jobs for university graduates may not require specialization in any field of study in Turkey. Both findings imply that supply and demand for skilled workers may be in short-term disequilibrium leading to surpluses in different skills in Turkish labour markets consistent with the recent evidence for constant relative real wages for skilled workers.