The effect of early cognitive ability on earnings over the life-cycle

Torberg Falch and Sofia Sandgren Massih ()
Additional contact information
Sofia Sandgren Massih: Uppsala Center for Labor Studies, Postal: Department of Economics, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

No 2010:2, Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper utilizes information on cognitive ability at age ten and earnings information from age 20 to 65 to estimate the return to ability over the life-cycle. Cognitive ability measured at an early age is not influenced by the individual’s choices of schooling. We find that most of the unconditional return to early cognitive ability goes through educational choice. The conditional return is increasing for low levels of experience and non-increasing for experience above about 15-25 years. The return is similar for men and women, and highest for individuals with academic education. Only a small part of the return can be explained by higher probability to have a supervisory position.

Keywords: Cognitive ability; life-cycle; earnings; IQ; employer learning * (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I29 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2010-01-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ucls.nek.uu.se/digitalAssets/136/136452_20102.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.ucls.nek.uu.se/digitalAssets/136/136452_20102.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.ucls.nek.uu.se/digitalAssets/136/136452_20102.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.uu.se/institution/nationalekonomiska/forskning/forskningscentrum/uppsala-center-for-labor-studies/digitalAssets/136/136452_20102.pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Effect of Early Cognitive Ability on Earnings Over the Life-Cycle (2012)
Working Paper: The effect of early cognitive ability on earnings over the life-cycle (2008)
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:hhs:uulswp:2010_002

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies from Uppsala University, Department of Economics Department of Economics, Uppsala University, P. O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Katarina Grönvall ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).