"Sobreeducación" y prima salarial de los trabajadores con estudios universitarios en Uruguay

Along the 1990’s there was an increase in the number of people who attended college in Uruguay, both in employment and in the labor force. This article seeks to find if there is evidence of overeducation at the tertiary level, defined as mismatch between supply and demand of that skill level. The article presents an estimation of the wage premium for those workers who attended college compared to those who finished high school but did not pursue their studies further of college, for the whole population and within occupations. Returns to higher education are found to be non-decreasing along the decade, which suggests that the increases in supply were matched by increases in demand for such skill level. More specifically, the college premium is estimated in occupations where both workers with college and with high school can be found. The main conclusion is that in such occupations there is a premium for workers who finished college but not for workers who went for some years to college but did not graduate. The overall results do not support the hypothesis of significant overeducation in the case of university graduates. The data used refer to the Household Survey of Uruguay along the nineties.