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The contributions of skills assessment to understanding the French labour market

Project Status Completed

Context

Several explanations have been put forward to account for the relatively high unemployment rate in France. In addition to labour market rigidities, the structural shortage of certain skills (referred to as ‘skill mismatch’) is also a prominent theme in the literature. Being able to measure skills accurately helps to better understand the needs of the labour market and to design effective public policies to tackle unemployment.

Presentation

Having carried out a review of the literature on the measurement of skills and the concept of skills mismatch, the research team’s work involves analysing data from the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to determine whether it accurately measures the skills valued in the labour market. By exploiting the exogenous shock represented by the extension of compulsory schooling introduced in various European countries, we will seek to determine whether the positive effects observed on wages are also reflected in the skills as measured by PIAAC.