The Math-Verbal Divide: Unequal Returns to Cognitive Skills in Education and Work

Judith Delaney () and Paul Devereux ()
Additional contact information
Judith Delaney: University of Bath
Paul Devereux: University College Dublin

No 18542, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: We use population-level administrative data on secondary school students in England to examine how mathematical and verbal skills shape educational and labour market outcomes. Tracking cohorts from age 16 through higher education and into employment up to age 34, we show that these skills operate through distinct pathways. Verbal skills strongly predict educational attainment - including university enrolment, completion, and postgraduate study - while mathematical skills yield substantially larger earnings returns. At ages 30-34, moving from the 25th to the 75th percentile of the mathematics distribution is associated with 29% higher earnings, compared with 14% for verbal skills. This divergence is partly driven by field-of-study choice: individuals with stronger verbal skills are more likely to enter fields with higher completion rates but lower pay, while those with stronger mathematical skills sort into STEM and other high-paying fields. Gender differences in skills explain the female advantage in higher education and part of the STEM gap, but have limited impact on the gender earnings gap due to offsetting effects across these channels.

Keywords: math skills; verbal skills; college; field of study; STEM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 I26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-gen, nep-inv, nep-lma and nep-neu
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18542.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18542

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().