Fourth Research Programm 1999 - 2002
Evaluation and analyses of the LFS 2000 ad hoc module data on school-to-work transitions in Europe
| Director: | Walter Müller |
| Researchers: | Markus Gangl, Frank Kalter, Prof. David Raffe, Cristina Iannelli (both CES, University of Edinburgh), Emer Smyth (ESRI, Dublin), Maarten Wolbers (ROA, University of Maastricht) |
| Funding | Eurostat |
| Expected Duration | ca. Summer 2001 – End 2002 |
| Data | European Union Labour Force Survey |
| Geograhic Space | EU + selected Eastern European (PHARE) countries |
Research questions/goals:
Comparative research on transitions between education and the labour market is currently lacking fully adequate and reliable data sources at the European level. In order to partly overcome this information need, Eurostat has introduced a topical module on transitions from education to work into the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2000 in 14 EU member states. As some Eastern European countries also decided to participate in the study, the LFS topical module will yield a unique database on labour market entry patterns in some 20 European countries. In the context of developing this new instrument for the LFS surveys, Eurostat has invited proposals for a scientific evaluation project from a number of European research institutes, the MZES among them.
In response, a collaborative project based on the core partners of the CATEWE network has been proposed. The aim of the project will be to provide for an evaluation process combining methodological and substantive concerns in assessing the potential of this new European database. The core of the proposed project is to conduct substantive research on those issues in current research on transition processes, to which the LFS 2000 module contributes new comparative data. In particular, the analyses will cover the effects of social background on educational careers and educational attainment, the relation between field of education and gender differences in the labour market, ethnic inequalities in transition processes, the incidence and consequences of job mismatches, and, finally, job search and mobility behaviour in the early career stages. Building on the LFS database, these different questions can be pursued according to a standardised, coherent and integrated set of analytical concepts. In the summaries below, each research topic and the distribution of responsibilities are described in greater detail.
In many respects, this project represents a natural extension of work which has been conducted under the CATEWE project, except that the project will have a new European database at its disposal which is hardly paralleled by alternative data sources. Linking MZES research to Eurostat, moreover, appears promising for at least two immediate reasons. If the project proposal was accepted, this would certainly increase the visibility of the institute at the European level. In addition, if the substantive innovation of including topical modules into the European LFS turns out to be a viable instrument for generating relevant data on specific aspects of European labour markets, it is likely that the instrument could potentially be used for other topics than transitions between education and work in the near future.
Summary of core research issues of the project
Educational attainment, social origin and labour market outcomes (Dr. Cristina Iannelli, Prof. David Raffe, Center for Educational Sociology, Edinburgh )
For the first time, a large scale comparative database contains information a) on respondents’ date of leaving education, b) on the kind of education respondents have obtained at this stage and c) information about parents’ education. This makes possible to know for specific kinds of qualifications the age at which this qualification is reached in the various countries covered by the LFS ad hoc module. It allows to assess empirically and in a comparable way the typical graduation ages in the various countries. It also allows to assess much more precisely than in previous research the transition from the qualifications obtained into the labour market and into different kinds of jobs. A first part of the project will thus present a series of descriptive indicators and analyses using more advanced statistical techniques on similarities and differences between countries concerning these dimensions of educational attainment and their interlinkages with social origin and labor market outcomes.
Field of education and gender differences in the labour market (Dr. Emer Smyth, Economic and Social Research Institute. Dublin)
Research on school to work transitions has indicated the significant role of level and track (vocational as opposed to general education) of education in influencing transition into the labor market. However, to date little has been known about how transition processes vary according to the field of education taken. Such information is of particular relevance in analyzing the persistence of gender differences in the early transition period. Previous research has indicated that the 'presorting' of women and men into different educational fields can contribute to their 'postsorting' into different occupational fields (Borghans and Groot, 1999; Smyth, 2000a, 2000b). Information available from the LFS module will provide the first opportunity to investigate the contribution of educational segregation to subsequent gender inequalities in labor market outcomes across a range of European countries using highly comparable data.
Ethnic differences at entry to the labour force:
the role of discrimination and education
(Dr. Frank Kalter, MZES)
Immigrants constitute a considerable proportion of the population in nearly all European countries. In most migration contexts immigrants occupy lower positions and receive lower wages than the native population. Economic assimilation’ is usually seen as the key dimension for immigrants integration (Esser 1980: 231). To a certain degree unfavourable labour market position of immigrants can be put down to the fact, that migration usually is selective with respect to the level of human capital (Borjas 1987). In addition to that it has been argued that the act of migration leads to a devaluation of human capital which is specific to the country of origin (Chiswick 1978). However, ethnic disadvantages also seem to exist over long periods of time and seem to be transmitted to succeeding generations. As in the LFS database information on ethnic and immigration background is available detailed analyses can and will be pursued on the extent to which ethnic affiliation and immigration status affect the patterns of transition into the labour market. A particularly interesting feature of the study is to examine how immigrants from the same emigration countries perform in different immigration countries with varying educational and labour market institutions.
The labour market effects of job mismatches among
school-leavers in Europe
(Dr. Maarten Wolbers, Research Center for Education and the Labour Market
ROA, Maastricht)
School-leavers often end up in jobs that do not match their educational qualifications very well (both with regard to the level and field of education) (see for instance Sicherman, 1991). These 'job mismatches' are the result of incomplete information on the abilities of school-leavers and the characteristics of jobs offered by employers. Logan (1996) refers to this as a two-sided matching game. In the literature, job mismatches are suggested to have serious effects on a number of labour market outcomes (e.g. income, probability of participation in additional training, job satisfaction). The analyses will examine these three labour market effects of job mismatches from a comparative perspective. Our main hypothesis is that the labour market effects of a non matching job are stronger in countries with a close link between the education and employment system than in countries with a weak relationship between education and the labour market.
Job search and mobility behaviour in the early career stages (Markus Gangl, MZES)
It is consensual view of both sociological and economic research that initial career stages involve substantial job mobility, accompanied by considerable wage and occupational status gains (e.g. Spilerman, 1977; Rosenfeld, 1992; Topel and Ward, 1992; Siow, 1994; Sicherman and Galor, 1990; Rosenbaum et al., 1990): Over the initial years in the labor market, young people often change jobs and employers, relatively often to an advantage in terms of earnings and occupations held. While the general pattern is convincingly established, there is much less evidence on institutional or structural effects on the relation between labor force experience and income or occupational status. In terms of the empirical analysis, a set of descriptive indicators will first be derived, which describe important aspects of labor market behavior and mobility patterns in the early career stages across Europe. In more specific analyses two interrelated aspects of initial career experiences will be addressed: first, the relationship between initial search duration and occupational status of first jobs, and second, subsequent status mobility from first to current job. These analyses will assess to which extent initial job search is "productive", in the sense of a positive relationship between duration of initial job search and the quality of first jobs in terms of occupational status. Cross-national variation is potentially interesting in this respect, notably relating to the role of employment protection on this relationship (following arguments made by Flanagan, 1988).