Social origins and over-education of Spanish University graduates: Is access to the service class merit-based?

This article analyses the impact of social background on the probability of over-education in a cohort of Spanish university graduates born in the 1970's and graduating in 1999/2000, based on the 2005 Reflex survey. The influence of three resources associated to social origins (cultural, social and economic capital) is evaluated in order to challenge one of the pillars of the modernization theory: the merit-based selection. Our results reveal that, even when controlling for field of study, occupational experience and average grade, both cultural and social capital exert an effect on the risk of over-education in Spain, but economic capital does not. Moreover, we conclude that the direct effect of social origins on over-education is not significantly mediated by a field of study choice dependent on social origins.