This paper analyzes the labor market impact of the Great Recession on overeducated and undereducated workers. In March 2008, the U.S. economy was near full employment with an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent. The next year, the unemployment rate peaked at 10.0 percent. The pace of the economic decline allows us to observe the workers'…

This paper argues that assortative matching may explain over-education. Education determines individuals' income and, due to the presence of assortative matching, the quality of partners in personal, social and working life. Thus, an individual acquires education to improve the expected partners' quality. However, since every individual of the…

Drawing upon a broad concept of inclusion, the first section of this article is dedicated to a critical discussion of the principle of "equal opportunities," which currently dominates the social justice discourse in Germany. Specifically, this section examines how far this principle, which focuses on the role of the individual in…

The incidence of overeducation in eight European countries is here assessed by means of multiple indicators. With the exception of Spain, the results reveal that overeducation is a minor risk amongst European tertiary graduates. Yet, the contrast between different indicators reveals the existence of an overeducation of a moderate kind in countries…

In November, 2008, Colorado and Nebraska voted on amendments that sought to end race-based affirmative action at public universities. In anticipation of the vote, Colorado's flagship public institution--The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU)--explored statistical approaches to support class-based affirmative action. This paper details CU's…

This paper argues that examinations have a complex role in creating and defining gender differences in performance in public examinations. To illustrate this argument three aspects of examining are reviewed: styles of examinations and how they define achievement; coursework and the role it plays in contributing to gender differences in…