Over-education and earnings: where are we, where should we go?

Drawing on empirical studies from five countries spanning an interval of two decades, regularities in the incidence of over- and undereducation are outlined, as well as consequences for individual earnings. The results are confronted with three theoretical models (search, human capital and assignment), but none of these is convincingly related to the specification of the earnings function. Directions for further work are suggested. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. JEL classification: J24; J31.