The impact of education and mismatch on wages: the USA, 1986-1996

In analysing the impact of education on wage differentials and wage growth, we use next topersonal characteristics (e.g. education and experience) also job characteristics (e.g. skillsrequired) to explain wages. We estimate wage equations on individual data for the USA, 1986 –1996. When discussing observed and previously unobserved heterogeneity it turns out thatpersonal characteristics like education and experience explain about half of the variation inwages. At least 20 per cent is explained by variation in job characteristics. When comparing theresults with similar research for the Netherlands, the returns to experience are the same in bothcountries, while the premiums on education and in particular required skills are much higher inthe US.