Rethinking Age-heaping, a Cautionary Tale From Nineteenth Century Italy

Brian A'Hearn, Alexia Delfino (alexia.delfino@unibocconi.it) and Alessandro Nuvolari

No _148, Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: A swelling stream of literature employs age-heaping as an indicator of human capital, more specifically of numeracy. We re-examine this connection in light of evidence drawn from nineteenth century Italy: census data, death records, and direct, qualitative evidence on age-awareness and numeracy. Though it can stand in as an acceptable proxy for literacy, our findings suggest that age-heaping is most plausibly interpreted as a broad indicator of cultural and institutional modernisation rather than a measure of cognitive skills.

Keywords: Age-Heaping; Numeracy; Human capital; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-10-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-knm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Rethinking age heaping: a cautionary tale from nineteenth‐century Italy (2022)
Working Paper: Rethinking Age-Heaping. A Cautionary Tale from Nineteenth Century Italy (2016)
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