The overqualified Canadian graduate: The role of the academic program in the incidence, persistence, and economic returns to overqualification

This study investigates the role of the academic program in the incidence, persistence, and economic returns to overqualification among recent Canadian post-secondary graduates. Master’s graduates are far more prone to overqualification than other graduates. Overqualification rates vary considerably by major field of study at the college and bachelor’s levels, but not at the master’s level. Graduates who are overqualified shortly after entering the workforce are far more likely to remain overqualified in the following years. Weak evidence suggests that co-op graduates are less likely to be overqualified at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, but not at the college level (where co-op programs are more popular). There is a strong, negative earnings effect associated with overqualification at the college and bachelor’s levels, most of which dissipates after accounting for unobserved heterogeneity in a longitudinal framework. There is little or no earnings effect at the master’s and doctoral levels.