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RésuméLes auteurs s'intéressent aux situations de surqualification et de chômage chez les jeunes diplômés du supérieur dans dix‐sept pays européens en analysant le rôle à cet égard des compétences ≪spécialisées≫ et des compétences ≪universitaires de base≫. Conformément à la thèse de l'éviction, les compétences spécialisées protègent davantage de la surqualification quand la surabondance de main‐d'œuvre s'accroît dans le secteur professionnel lié à la spécialisation du diplômé, et les compétences de base davantage si c'est sur le marché du travail général que cet excédent se renforce. En outre, si les compétences spécialisées protègent du chômage, les compétences de base restent sans effet sur ce risque.

ResumenSe explora la relación entre competencias y riesgo de sobrecalificación y desempleo en titulados universitarios de 17 países europeos. Distinguiendo entre competencias especializadas y académicas, se observa que, como predice la hipótesis de exclusión, las primeras ofrecen mayor protección frente al riesgo de sobrecalificación cuando aumenta el excedente de trabajadores en el ámbito ocupacional de la especialidad del titulado, y las segundas, cuando aumenta ese excedente en el mercado laboral general. Asimismo, las competencias especializadas protegen contra el riesgo de desempleo, pero este no correlaciona con el nivel de competencias académicas según nuestros resultados.

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between graduates' skills and their risk of over‐education and unemployment in 17 European countries. Distinguishing between field‐specific and academic skills, the authors find that, as predicted by the crowding‐out hypothesis, field‐specific skills offer more protection against the risk of over‐education when the excess labour supply in the occupational domain of the graduate's field of study increases. Conversely, academic skills have that effect when excess supply in the overall labour market is higher. Field‐specific skills also protect graduates against the risk of unemployment, whereas graduates' level of academic skills appears to be unrelated to the risk of becoming unemployed.

We document the importance of negatively reciprocal inclinations in labor relationships by showing that a retrenchment of pension rights, which is perceived as unfair, causes a larger reduction in job motivation the stronger workers' negatively reciprocal inclinations are. We exploit unique matched survey and administrative data on male employees in the public sector in the Netherlands and compare the job motivation of employees born in 1950, who faced a substantial retrenchment of their pension rights resulting from a pension reform in 2006, to that of slightly older employees who remain entitled to more generous pension benefits. Job motivation is significantly lower among negatively reciprocal employees who were affected by the reform. The negative effect on job motivation is greater for negative reciprocal employees born very shortly after the cut-off date of January 1, 1950, as well as for those with many untreated colleagues, and who therefore arguably perceive the policy change as being more unfair. We also find that the treatment effect is stronger among workers who are more likely to hold their employer accountable for the drop in their pension rights, that is, those who work for the national government.