Work-education mismatch: An endogenous theory of professionalization
Name
nihms862475.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
1.78 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
22857f2943e5f6e701acb450453e65c7
Author(s)
Ghaffarzadegan, Navid
Xue, Yi
Larson, Richard Charles
Date Issued
March 2017
Journal
European Journal of Operational Research
Publisher
Elsevier Science Ltd.
Citation
Ghaffarzadegan, Navid et al. "Work-education mismatch: An endogenous theory of professionalization." European Journal of Operational Research, 261, 3 (September 2017): 1085-1097 © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We model the education-workforce pipeline and offer an endogenous theory of professionalization and ever-higher degree attainment. We introduce two mechanisms that act on the education enterprise, causing the number of educated people to increase dramatically with relatively short-term changes in the job market. Using our illustrative dynamic model, we argue that the system is susceptible to small changes and the introduced self-driving growth engines are adequate to over-incentivize degree attainment. We also show that the mechanisms magnify effects of short-term recessions or technological changes, and create long-term waves of mismatch between workforce and jobs. The implication of the theory is degree inflation, magnified pressures on those with lower degrees, underemployment, and job market mismatch and inefficiency. Keywords: System dynamics; Education policy; Inefficiency; Education mismatch; Public policy
Subjects
Management Science and Operations Research
Modelling and Simulation
Information Systems and Management
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.02.041
