Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions?

While cognitive skills are known to play an important role in labour market success, empirical evidence is mainly concentrated in its effect on returns to schooling. Evidence on the role of cognitive skills in gender earnings gap decompositions is virtually absent. I use two approaches to investigat...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sakellariou, Christos
Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2013
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/98190
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/17578
_version_ 1811683391371739136
author Sakellariou, Christos
author2 School of Humanities and Social Sciences
author_facet School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Sakellariou, Christos
author_sort Sakellariou, Christos
collection NTU
description While cognitive skills are known to play an important role in labour market success, empirical evidence is mainly concentrated in its effect on returns to schooling. Evidence on the role of cognitive skills in gender earnings gap decompositions is virtually absent. I use two approaches to investigate the potential for cognitive skills to affect the size and pattern of the unexplained component of the earnings gap (‘relative discrimination’) across the wage distribution, using data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). It has been shown that when the raw cognitive score is used to control for cognitive skills, the return to schooling cognitive skills is generally underestimated. Once a distinction is made about the origins of cognitive skills (acquired in school versus outside the school), the returns to cognitive skills can vary depending on their origin. I find that using the raw score to control for cognitive skills does not result in any significantly different estimates of the unexplained component of the gap compared to when cognitive skills are not controlled for. However, once cognitive skills by origin of skill are used in place of total cognitive skills, the results change substantially for three of the five countries examined.
first_indexed 2024-10-01T04:11:59Z
format Journal Article
id ntu-10356/98190
institution Nanyang Technological University
language English
last_indexed 2024-10-01T04:11:59Z
publishDate 2013
record_format dspace
spelling ntu-10356/981902020-03-07T12:10:40Z Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions? Sakellariou, Christos School of Humanities and Social Sciences While cognitive skills are known to play an important role in labour market success, empirical evidence is mainly concentrated in its effect on returns to schooling. Evidence on the role of cognitive skills in gender earnings gap decompositions is virtually absent. I use two approaches to investigate the potential for cognitive skills to affect the size and pattern of the unexplained component of the earnings gap (‘relative discrimination’) across the wage distribution, using data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). It has been shown that when the raw cognitive score is used to control for cognitive skills, the return to schooling cognitive skills is generally underestimated. Once a distinction is made about the origins of cognitive skills (acquired in school versus outside the school), the returns to cognitive skills can vary depending on their origin. I find that using the raw score to control for cognitive skills does not result in any significantly different estimates of the unexplained component of the gap compared to when cognitive skills are not controlled for. However, once cognitive skills by origin of skill are used in place of total cognitive skills, the results change substantially for three of the five countries examined. 2013-11-11T05:46:49Z 2019-12-06T19:51:57Z 2013-11-11T05:46:49Z 2019-12-06T19:51:57Z 2012 2012 Journal Article Sakellariou, C. (2013). Are Cognitive Skills Relevant In Gender Earnings Decompositions?Bulletin of Economic Research, 65(2), 134-153. 0307-3378 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/98190 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/17578 10.1111/j.1467-8586.2011.00430.x en Bulletin of economic research
spellingShingle Sakellariou, Christos
Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions?
title Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions?
title_full Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions?
title_fullStr Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions?
title_full_unstemmed Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions?
title_short Are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions?
title_sort are cognitive skills relevant in gender earnings decompositions
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/98190
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/17578
work_keys_str_mv AT sakellariouchristos arecognitiveskillsrelevantingenderearningsdecompositions