TY - JOUR
T1 - Labour market experience, educational attainment and self-reported happiness
T2 - crowding-out amongst young people in Hong Kong
AU - Kühner, Stefan
AU - Jiang, Jin
AU - Wen, Zhuoyi
AU - Lau, Maggie
N1 - Funding Information:
This article is part of the research project titled The Well-being of Young People during Their Transition into Work and Adulthood, funded by the Lingnan University, Hong Kong Seed Fund. The authors thank Professor Lok Sang Ho for access to the online LIFE Happiness Survey data. The authors are indebted to Sing Yi Luk for her research support. We also thank the attendants of the 14th East Asian Social Policy Research Network Annual Conference (Nagoya University, Japan, 2?3 August 2017) and the Conference on Youth Opportunity in Asia (National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, 18?19 December 2017) for their valuable comments and suggestions. All remaining errors remain the authors? own.
Funding Information:
This article is part of the research project titled The Well-being of Young People during Their Transition into Work and Adulthood, funded by the Lingnan University, Hong Kong Seed Fund. The authors thank Professor Lok Sang Ho for access to the online LIFE Happiness Survey data. The authors are indebted to Sing Yi Luk for her research support. We also thank the attendants of the 14th East Asian Social Policy Research Network Annual Conference (Nagoya University, Japan, 2–3 August 2017) and the Conference on Youth Opportunity in Asia (National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, 18–19 December 2017) for their valuable comments and suggestions. All remaining errors remain the authors’ own.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021/5/24
Y1 - 2021/5/24
N2 - Recent literature on education and work well recognises the ‘crowding-out perspective’ of how higher education expansion impacts the labour market experience of young people with different educational levels. However, the relationship between the labour market experience and young people’s self-reported happiness remains less well understood. This paper examines whether a ‘crowding out’ effect occurs amongst post-secondary degree-holders on the self-reported happiness of young people (aged 16-34) amidst increasing difficulties during their school-to-work transition. Drawing on a city-wide online survey in a leading global city, Hong Kong, statistical analysis shows that contrary to the mainstream ‘crowding out perspective’, self-reported happiness is lower amongst young people with high rather than low educational attainment. However, in the absence of a ‘happiness premium’ of educational attainment, young people in Hong Kong with secondary degrees or below are much more sensitive to adverse labour market experiences, such as unemployment, high job pressure and long working hours. No similar moderating effect of educational attainment is found on the relationship between the self-reported happiness of young people and regular work shifts. The implications of these findings on the ‘crowding out perspective’ for youth development policy within East Asia and Hong Kong productivist welfare paradigm are discussed.
AB - Recent literature on education and work well recognises the ‘crowding-out perspective’ of how higher education expansion impacts the labour market experience of young people with different educational levels. However, the relationship between the labour market experience and young people’s self-reported happiness remains less well understood. This paper examines whether a ‘crowding out’ effect occurs amongst post-secondary degree-holders on the self-reported happiness of young people (aged 16-34) amidst increasing difficulties during their school-to-work transition. Drawing on a city-wide online survey in a leading global city, Hong Kong, statistical analysis shows that contrary to the mainstream ‘crowding out perspective’, self-reported happiness is lower amongst young people with high rather than low educational attainment. However, in the absence of a ‘happiness premium’ of educational attainment, young people in Hong Kong with secondary degrees or below are much more sensitive to adverse labour market experiences, such as unemployment, high job pressure and long working hours. No similar moderating effect of educational attainment is found on the relationship between the self-reported happiness of young people and regular work shifts. The implications of these findings on the ‘crowding out perspective’ for youth development policy within East Asia and Hong Kong productivist welfare paradigm are discussed.
KW - crowding-out perspective
KW - Happiness
KW - higher education
KW - labour market experience
KW - young people
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106338176&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13639080.2021.1922622
DO - 10.1080/13639080.2021.1922622
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85106338176
SN - 1363-9080
VL - 34
SP - 275
EP - 291
JO - Journal of Education and Work
JF - Journal of Education and Work
IS - 3
ER -
