Educational Mismatches and Labor Market Outcomes

Abstract

Educational mismatches constitute negative impacts on labor markets in developing countries.
Thailand is no exception. This study analyzes data obtained from Thailand’s Labor Force
Survey to estimate the likelihood of horizontal and vertical mismatches and their impacts on
labor market outcomes. Estimation results reveal the existence of a high level of both vertical
and horizontal mismatches in the labor market. The vertical mismatch tends to be most
prevalent in the case of graduates with degrees in the social sciences, while the existence of
the horizontal mismatch is mostly found in the case of graduates with backgrounds in the
physical sciences. Education-job mismatches, either vertical or horizontal mismatches, are found
to cause negative impacts on workers’ employment by having lower monthly incomes than did
those without such mismatches. Vertical mismatches seemed to result in lower incomes than
did the horizontal mismatches. Furthermore, both types of mismatch are found to not have any
significant impact on workers’ employability. However, when analyzing samples’ data divided
by gender and fields of study, the impacts of the mismatches tended to vary.