The Strength and consequences of school-work linkages in Israel

Recent decades have seen immense technological changes that have thrown doubt 011 the common belief that good education produces good jobs and widely shared economic prosperity for individuals and society alike. Young adults in these societies currently experience considerable uncertainty about whether education provides an assurance of a good job. During the current era of rising inequality, scholarly work has shown that increases in average years of schooling is not sufficient by itself to reduce this uncertainty, and therefore recommends a focus, instead, on how specific skills and knowledge are related to jobs. Scholars and policy—makers should therefore strive for a better understanding of how and why field of study matters for the attainment of jobs that can lead to economic prosperity for individuals and society. The current proposal addresses this issue by applying a novel approach to assess how specific fields of study are related to equally specific jobs in Israel. This approach, moreover, allows an evaluation of whether the relationships between educational credentials and occupations has changed in Israel, and also to compare the Israeli structure to that in other countries. I/Ve will estimate the Israeli structure by using a unique data source tailored for the study, and situate the Israeli case in a comparative perspective by using US and EU data sources. Finally, we will estimate how the Israeli structure and its impact on individual outcomes is affected by academic performance and ethno—religion group affiliation.