Abstract
This article proposes a measure of educational mismatch based on a novel definition ofschooling that takes into account the different levels of skills acquired by individuals with the sameeducation. It is assumed that less (more) able individuals could compensate for their skill deficit(surplus) with more (less) education, and PIAAC data are used to analyse the substitution betweenskill and educational mismatches in terms of wages. We use the proposed measure to assess thelevel of effective educational mismatch in a set of countries. When accounting for workers’ realskills, we find that overeducation tends to drop, the difference between observed and effectiveeducational mismatch varying by country.