Functional Literacy, Heterogeneity and the Returns to Schooling : Multi-Country Evidence
Little is known about which of the skills that make up workers' human capital contribute to higher earnings. Past empirical evidence suggest that most of the return to schooling is generated by effects or correlates unrelated to the skills mea...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/11/18501791/functional-literacy-heterogeneity-returns-schooling-multi-country-evidence http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16917 |
| Summary: | Little is known about which of the
skills that make up workers' human capital contribute
to higher earnings. Past empirical evidence suggest that
most of the return to schooling is generated by effects or
correlates unrelated to the skills measured by the available
tests. This paper uses the International Adult Literacy and
the Adult Literacy and Life Skills surveys to obtain
multi-country estimates of the components of the return to
schooling. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity and
a dichotomy between two groups of countries. For a subgroup
of educationally advanced countries, nearly half of the
return to schooling can be attributed to labor
marker-relevant functional literacy skills associated with
schooling, while for a subgroup of less educationally
advanced countries, such skills account for just over 20
percent of the return to schooling, while the return to
schooling mostly reflects the signaling value of schooling. |
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