Gender overeducation gap in the digital age: Can spatial flexibility through working from home close the gap?

This study analyses the gender overeducation gap, meaning differences between partnered men and women in the degree of holding a job with lower requirements compared to one's own education, and how working from home (WfH) affects overeducation. Contextualising education-job mismatches in the digital age, we update an old topic of labour market research considering new options of spatial flexibility via WfH. Using a unique German dataset of the core employed population in 2018 (i.e., individuals that are at least 15 years old and report paid work for at least 10 h per week), our results show a gender overeducation gap, with women at a higher risk of overeducation than men. By applying a latent variable approach with simultaneous regressions to account for potential selection into jobs allowing WfH, we find that the WfH option carries a lower overeducation risk. Moreover, the findings suggest a gender-specific benefit of WfH: women show higher overeducation risks among employees without the WfH option, but the gender overeducation gap is closed among those with the WfH option.