Do Cognitive Test Scores Explain Higher U.S. Wage Inequality?
29 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2004
Date Written: February 2004
Abstract
Using microdata from the 1994-8 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) for nine countries, we examine the role of cognitive skills in explaining higher wage inequality in the United States. We find that while the greater dispersion of cognitive test scores in the United States plays a part in explaining higher U.S. wage inequality, higher labor market prices (i.e., higher returns to measured human capital and cognitive performance) and greater residual inequality still play important roles, and are, on average, quantitatively considerably more important than differences in the distribution of test scores in explaining higher U.S. wage inequality.
JEL Classification: J31, J24
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Do Cognitive Test Scores Explain Higher Us Wage Inequality?
By Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn
-
Does Inequality in Skills Explain Inequality in Earnings Across Advanced Countries?
By Dan Devroye and Richard B. Freeman
-
By Edwin Leuven and Hessel Oosterbeek
-
A Millennium Learning Goal: Measuring Real Progress in Education
By Deon Filmer, Amer Hasan, ...
-
Educational Achievement in English-Speaking Countries: Do Different Surveys Tell the Same Story?
-
By Jishnu Das and Tristan Zajonc
-
Does Education Reduce Wage Inequality? Quantile Regressions Evidence from Fifteen European Countries
-
Cross-National Surveys of Learning Achievement: How Robust are the Findings?
By Giorgina Brown, John Micklewright, ...