This research project received funding through the 2024-2025 Institute for Diversity Science Seed Grant Program
Principal Investigator: Ran Liu, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Co-Investigator: Thao Pham, PhD student, Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abstract:
Gender and racial wage inequalities persist and have even expanded among highly educated workers, despite remarkable educational gains of women and minorities. Extant research addresses both educational and occupational factors in explaining these disparities. However, an overlooked potential source of inequality lies in the school-to-work linkage: the horizontal mismatch between educational and occupational fields. Women and racial/ethnic minorities may be disproportionately relegated to mismatched jobs and face greater penalties when mismatches occur; these disparities can also depend on educational field specificity, defined as the extent to which an educational field is linked to a few occupations. Utilizing nationally representative data from the American Community Survey on over 2.5 million college graduates and the National Survey of College Graduates on over 124,000 individuals, I investigate: 1) Are there gender and racial disparities in the prevalence and consequences of horizontal mismatch? 2) Do these disparities vary according to levels of educational field specificity? I replace previously-used, crude dichotomous definitions of horizontal mismatch and educational field specificity with objective data-driven measures to capture these complex concepts on continuous spectrums. Findings will help guide college major choice, career services, and policies and initiatives to address inequality in school-to-work linkages.