Childhood and Adulthood Skill Acquisition - Importance for Labor Market Outcomes

Karl Fritjof Krassel and Kenneth Sørensen
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Karl Fritjof Krassel: KORA, Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government Research

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University

Abstract: Using matched PISA and PIAAC data from Denmark, we investigate the return to cognitive and non-cognitive skills with respect to labor market outcomes. We measure cognitive and non-cognitive skills at childhood and when the respondents have entered the labor market. Hence, we are able to split up the analysis contingent on cognitive and non-cognitive skills measured before entering the labor market. In this way we can measure both whether cognitive and/or non-cognitive skills relate to earnings and employment rate as well as how important the timing of acquiring skills are for outcomes on the labor market. Overall we find that cognitive skills are important for both earnings and employment rate but that the timing of the acquisition of the skills is of less importance. On the contrary, non-cognitive skills are important for earnings independent on whether the worker had high or low cognitive skills at childhood, but only important for employment rate for workers with high cognitive and low non-cognitive childhood skills. Overall our findings suggest that both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are important but that the dynamics differ.

Keywords: Cognitive skills; non-cognitive skills; earnings; employment; PIAAC; PISA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27
Date: 2015-10-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-neu
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