| By: |
Behrman, Jere R.;
Hoddinott, John;
Maluccio, John A.;
Soler-Hampejsek, Erica;
Behrman, Emily L.;
Martorell, Reynaldo;
Ramírez-Zea, Manuel;
Stein, Aryeh D. |
| Abstract: |
"Most investigations into the importance and determinants of adult cognitive
skills assume that (1) they are produced primarily by schooling, and (2)
schooling is statistically predetermined or exogenous. This study uses
longitudinal data collected in Guatemala over 35 years to investigate
production functions for adult cognitive skills—that is, reading-comprehension
skills and nonverbal cognitive skills—as being dependent on behaviorally
determined preschooling, schooling, and post-schooling experiences. We use an
indicator of whether the child was stunted (child height-for-age Z-score < –2)
as our representation of preschooling experiences, and we use tenure in
skilled occupations as our representation of post-schooling experiences. The
results indicate that assumptions (1) and (2) lead to a substantial
overemphasis on schooling and an underemphasis on pre- and post-schooling
experiences. The magnitudes of the effects of these pre- and post-schooling
experiences are large. For example, the impact on reading-comprehension scores
of not being stunted at age 6 is equivalent to the impact of four grades of
schooling. These findings also have other important implications. For example,
they (1) reinforce the importance of early life investments; (2) point to
limitations in using adult schooling to represent human capital in the
cross-country growth literature; (3) support the importance of childhood
nutrition and work complexity in explaining the “Flynn effect,” or the
substantial increases in measured cognitive skills over time; and (4) lead to
doubts about the interpretations of studies that report productivity impacts
of cognitive skills without controlling for skill endogeneity." from authors'
abstract |
| Keywords: |
Human capital, cognitive skills, Stunting, work experience, Development, Education, Gender, Health and nutrition, |
| Date: |
2008 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:826&r=lam |