Qualitative Mismatches

Qualitative mismatches arise when the qualifications of workers, individually or in the aggregate, are different from the qualifications required or specified for their jobs. This study reviews the literature on qualitative mismatches, including overeducation, job mobility and shifts in demands and supplies of workers, and relates it to ongoing phenomena such as search and matching models of unemployment, job polarization, inequality, and the race between technology and education. The approach taken here introduces the distinction between short run qualitative mismatches for individual workers and employers and long run aggregate qualitative mismatches arising from changes in the quantity demanded or supplied in a category of the labor market. The study considers the role of employment agencies in reducing qualitative mismatches as well as other policies that would improve the operation of the labor market. Please do not quote from or disseminate this draft.