Why cognitive test scores of spanish adults are so low? the role of schooling and socioeconomic background

Brindusa Anghel, Pilar Cuadrado () and Federico Tagliati
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Pilar Cuadrado: Banco de España

No 2038, Working Papers from Banco de España

Abstract: We explore the cognitive skill gap between the adult population in Spain and in the rest of European Union countries using the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. We find that differences in schooling account for about a third of the average difference in cognitive test scores, whereas differences in socio-economic background explain about one fourth of the average score gap. While cognitive skill gaps are increasing along the distribution of test scores, differences in educational stocks and socio-economic factors explain a larger fraction of the gap at the bottom than at the top of the skill distribution.

Keywords: human capital; cognitive skills; PIAAC; Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J10 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-eur
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bde:wpaper:2038

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