Functional Literacy, Heterogeneity and the Returns to Schooling : Multi-Country Evidence

Fasih, Tazeen ; Patrinos, Harry Anthony ; Sakellariou, Chris

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABOLITION OF FEES;    ACHIEVEMENT SCORES;    ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES;    ACHIEVEMENT TESTS;    ADULT LITERACY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6697
RP-ID  :  WPS6697

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Little is known about which of theskills that make up workers' human capital contributeto higher earnings. Past empirical evidence suggest thatmost of the return to schooling is generated by effects orcorrelates unrelated to the skills measured by the availabletests. This paper uses the International Adult Literacy andthe Adult Literacy and Life Skills surveys to obtainmulti-country estimates of the components of the return toschooling. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity anda dichotomy between two groups of countries. For a subgroupof educationally advanced countries, nearly half of thereturn to schooling can be attributed to labormarker-relevant functional literacy skills associated withschooling, while for a subgroup of less educationallyadvanced countries, such skills account for just over 20percent of the return to schooling, while the return toschooling mostly reflects the signaling value of schooling.