 Can work protect against age-related decline of cognitive skills?: An empirical test of the use-it-or-lose-it hypothesisMark Levels and Rolf Van der Velden (r.vandervelden@maastrichtuniversity.nl) Chapter 10 in A Research Agenda for Skills and Inequality, 2023, pp 161-176 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Cognitive ability generally declines with age in older adults, but literature suggests that this process may be slowed or even halted by actively engaging in cognitive activities. The evidence for this so-called use-it-or-lose-it hypothesis is mixed. We analyze numeracy skills data from 7733 adults over age 40 in 21 countries. Using propensity score matching on a large number of observable characteristics, we compare the numeracy skills of adults who have stopped working only very recently before the measurement of their skills to adults that are comparable on observable variables but are still working. In line with the use-it-or-lose-it hypothesis, we observe that those who are still working are slightly more numerically skilled than comparable adults who have stopped working. Keywords: Business and Management; Economics and Finance; Education; Geography; Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:20326_10 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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