The value of basic skills in the British labour market

Augustin de Coulon, Oscar Marcenaro-Gutierrez and Anna Vignoles
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Oscar Marcenaro Gutierrez

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In this paper we evaluate the labour market value of basic skills in the UK, focusing on the wage and employment returns to having better literacy and numeracy skills. We draw on literacy and numeracy assessments undertaken by all cohort members of the UK 1970 British Cohort Study. The data used are very rich and allow us to account for potential ability bias, including as they do early childhood assessments of ability. We find that the literacy and numeracy effects on earnings are over and above any general effect on earnings from a person being more cognitively able. We also assess whether the value of basic skills, in terms of wage returns, has increased over time, using a cross cohort analysis based on the 1958 National Child Development Study cohort and the 1970 British Cohort Study. Our results show that literacy and numeracy skills retained their high value in the labour market over the period 1995-2004, despite numerous policy attempts to increase the supply of basic skills during this period.

Keywords: Skills; Labour Market; Literacy; Numeracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2007-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/19398/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The value of basic skills in the British labour market (2011)
Working Paper: The Value of Basic Skills in the British Labour Market (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:19398

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