This file is part of IDEAS , which uses RePEc data
[ Papers |
Articles |
Software |
Books |
Chapters |
Authors |
Institutions |
JEL Classification |
NEP reports |
Search |
New papers by email |
Author registration |
Rankings |
Volunteers |
FAQ |
Blog |
Help! ]
What Determines Adult Cognitive Skills? Impacts of Pre-Schooling, Schooling and Post-Schooling Experiences in Guatemala Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics Jere R. Behrman, University of Pennsylvania
John Hoddinott, International Food Policy Research Institute
John Maluccio ()
Erica Soler-Hampejsek, University of Pennsylvania
Emily L. Behrman, University of Pennsylvania
Reynaldo Martorell, Emory University
Manuel Ramirez-Zea, Institute of Nutrition for Central America and Panama
Aryeh D. Stein, Emory University
Additional information is available for the following
registered author(s):
Most investigations of the importance of and the determinants of adult cognitive skills assume that (a) they are produced primarily by schooling and (b) schooling is statistically predetermined. But these assumptions may lead to misleading inferences about impacts of schooling and of pre-schooling and post-schooling experiences on adult cognitive skills. This study uses an unusually rich longitudinal data set collected over 35 years in Guatemala to investigate production functions for adult (i) reading-comprehension and (ii) nonverbal cognitive skills as dependent on behaviorally-determined pre-schooling, schooling and post-schooling experiences. Major results are: (1) Schooling has significant and substantial impact on adult reading comprehension (but not on adult nonverbal cognitive skills)—but estimates of this impact are biased upwards substantially if there are no controls for behavioral determinants of schooling in the presence of persistent unobserved factors such as genetic endowments and/or if family background factors that appear to be correlated with genetic endowments are included among the first-stage instruments. (2) Both pre-schooling and post-schooling experiences have substantial significant impacts on one or both of the adult cognitive skill measures that tend to be underestimated if these pre- and post-schooling experiences are treated as statistically predetermined—in contrast to the upward bias for schooling, which suggests that the underlying physical and job-related components of genetic endowments are negatively correlated with those for cognitive skills. (3) The failure in most studies to incorporate pre- and post-schooling experiences in the analysis of adult cognitive skills or outcomes affected by adult cognitive skills is likely to lead to misleading over-emphasis on schooling relative to these pre-and post-schooling experiences. (4) Gender differences in the coefficients of the adult cognitive skills production functions are not significant, suggesting that most of the fairly substantial differences in adult cognitive skills favoring males on average originate from gender differences in schooling attainment and in experience in skilled jobs favoring males. These four sets of findings are of substantial interest in themselves. But they also have important implications for broader literatures, reinforcing the importance of early life investments in disadvantaged children in determining adult skills and options, pointing to limitations in the cross-country growth literature of using schooling of adults to represent human capital, supporting hypotheses about the importance of childhood nutrition and work complexity in explaining the “Flynn effect” of substantial increases in measured cognitive skills over time, and questioning the interpretation of studies that report productivity impacts of cognitive skills without controlling for the endogeneity of such skills.
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page . Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Paper provided by Middlebury College, Department of Economics in its series Middlebury College Working Paper Series with number
0615.
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract ),
plain text
(with abstract ),
BibTeX ,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: 2006Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:0615Contact details of provider:
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Janine Podraza).
Keywords: Other versions of this item:
Paper Jere R. Behrman & John Hoddinott & John A. Maluccio, & Erica Soler-Hampejsek & Emily L. Behrman & Reynaldo Martorell & Manuel Ramirez-Zea & Aryeh D. Stein, 2006.
"What Determines Adult Cognitive Skills? Impacts of Pre-Schooling, Schooling and Post-Schooling Experiences in Guatemala ,"
PIER Working Paper Archive
06-027, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
[Downloadable!] Behrman, Jere R. & Hoddinott, John & Maluccio, John A. & Soler-Hampejsek, Erica & Behrman, Emily L. & Martorell, Reynaldo & Ramírez-Zea, Manuel & Stein, Aryeh D., 2008.
"What determines adult cognitive skills?: Impacts of preschooling, schooling, and post-schooling experiences in Guatemala ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
826, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!] This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports :
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile , click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: James H. Stock & Motohiro Yogo, 2002.
"Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression ,"
NBER Technical Working Papers
0284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2006.
"Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition ,"
Oxford Economic Papers ,
Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 450-474, July.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Alderman,Harold & Hoddinott, John & Kinsey, Bill, 2003.
"Long-term consequences of early childhood malnutrition ,"
FCND discussion papers
168, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!] Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2004.
"Long Term Consequences Of Early Childhood Malnutrition ,"
HiCN Working Papers
09, Households in Conflict Network.
[Downloadable!] Alderman,Harold & Hoddinott, John & Kinsey, Bill, 2003.
"Long-term consequences of early childhood malnutrition ,"
FCND briefs
168, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!] Benhabib, Jess & Spiegel, Mark M., 1994.
"The role of human capital in economic development evidence from aggregate cross-country data ,"
Journal of Monetary Economics ,
Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 143-173, October.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
John Strauss & Duncan Thomas, 1998.
"Health, Nutrition, and Economic Development ,"
Journal of Economic Literature ,
American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 766-817, June.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions: Nehru, Vikram & Swanson, Eric & Dubey, Ashutosh, 1995.
"A new database on human capital stock in developing and industrial countries: Sources, methodology, and results ,"
Journal of Development Economics ,
Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 379-401, April.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Alderman, Harold & Watkins, Susan Cotts & Kohler, Hans-Peter & Maluccio, John A. & Behrman, Jere R., 2000.
"Attrition in longitudinal household survey data ,"
FCND briefs
96, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Alderman, Harold & Watkins, Susan Cotts & Kohler, Hans-Peter & Maluccio, John A. & Behrman, Jere R., 2000.
"Attrition in longitudinal household survey data ,"
FCND discussion papers
96, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!] Harold Alderman & Jere Behrman & Hans-Peter Kohler & John A. Maluccio & Susan Watkins, 2001.
"Attrition in Longitudinal Household Survey Data ,"
Demographic Research ,
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 5(4), pages 79-124, November.
[Downloadable!] Jere R. Behrman & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2004.
"Returns to Birthweight ,"
The Review of Economics and Statistics ,
MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 586-601, 06.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997.
"Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments ,"
Econometrica ,
Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
Other versions: Strauss, J. & Thomas, D., 1995.
"Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions ,"
Papers
95-12, RAND - Reprint Series.
Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2007.
"The Production of Cognitive Achievement in Children: Home, School, and Racial Test Score Gaps ,"
Journal of Human Capital ,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 91-136.
[Downloadable!]
Behrman, J.R. & Ross, D. & Sabot, R. & Alderman, H., 1995.
"The Returns to endogenous Human Capital in Pakistan's Rural Wage Labour Market ,"
Center for Development Economics
141, Department of Economics, Williams College.
Other versions: Behrman, Jere R. & Rosenzweig, Mark R., 1999.
""Ability" biases in schooling returns and twins: a test and new estimates ,"
Economics of Education Review ,
Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 159-167, April.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2002.
"How Much Should We Trust Differences-in-Differences Estimates? ,"
NBER Working Papers
8841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions: Glewwe, Paul & Jocoby, Hanan & King, Elizabeth M., 1999.
"Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement ,"
FCND discussion papers
68, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Mahnaz Islam & John Hoddinott, 2009.
"Evidence of Intrahousehold Flypaper Effects from a Nutrition Intervention in Rural Guatemala ,"
Economic Development and Cultural Change ,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(2), pages 215-238, 01.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Jere R. Behrman & Susan W. Parker & Petra E. Todd, 2005.
"Long-Term Impacts of the Oportunidades Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Rural Youth in Mexico ,"
Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers
122, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
[Downloadable!]
Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G. & King, Elizabeth M., 2001.
"Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis ,"
Journal of Public Economics ,
Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 345-368, September.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2003.
"On The Specification and Estimation of The Production Function for Cognitive Achievement ,"
Economic Journal ,
Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages F3-F33, February.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Rosenzweig, Mark R. & Schultz, T. Paul, 1987.
"Fertility and Investments in Human Capital: Estimates of the Consequences of Imperfect Fertility Control in Malaysia ,"
Bulletins
7513, University of Minnesota, Economic Development Center.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: Jere R. Behrman & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2002.
"Does Increasing Women's Schooling Raise the Schooling of the Next Generation? ,"
American Economic Review ,
American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 323-334, March.
[Downloadable!]
Psacharopoulos, George & Patrinos, Harry Anthony, 2002.
"Returns to investment in education : a further update ,"
Policy Research Working Paper Series
2881, The World Bank.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2004.
"The Production of Cognitive Achievement in Children: Home, School and Racial Test Score Gaps ,"
PIER Working Paper Archive
04-019, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
[Downloadable!]
Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995.
"Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions ,"
Handbook of Development Economics ,
in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023
Elsevier.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Robert J. Barro & Jong-Wha Lee, 1993.
"International Comparisons of Educational Attainment ,"
NBER Working Papers
4349, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions: Behrman, Jere R & Rosenzweig, Mark R & Taubman, Paul, 1996.
"College Choice and Wages: Estimates Using Data on Female Twins ,"
The Review of Economics and Statistics ,
MIT Press, vol. 78(4), pages 672-85, November.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Schultz, Theodore W, 1975.
"The Value of the Ability to Deal with Disequilibria ,"
Journal of Economic Literature ,
American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 827-46, September.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
John Maluccio & John Hoddinott, International Food Policy Research Institute & Jere R. Behrman, University of Pennsylvania & Reynaldo Martorell, Emory University & Agnes R. Quisumbing, International F, 2006.
"The Impact of Nutrition during Early Childhood on Education among Guatemalan Adults ,"
Middlebury College Working Paper Series
0614, Middlebury College, Department of Economics.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: Moulton, Brent R, 1990.
"An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit ,"
The Review of Economics and Statistics ,
MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-38, May.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Mankiw, N Gregory & Romer, David & Weil, David N, 1992.
"A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth ,"
The Quarterly Journal of Economics ,
MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 407-37, May.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions: Harold Alderman & Jere R. Behrman, 2006.
"Reducing the Incidence of Low Birth Weight in Low-Income Countries Has Substantial Economic Benefits ,"
World Bank Research Observer ,
Oxford University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 25-48.
Behrman, Jere R & Rosenzweig, Mark R & Taubman, Paul, 1994.
"Endowments and the Allocation of Schooling in the Family and in the Marriage Market: The Twins Experiment ,"
Journal of Political Economy ,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1131-74, December.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Glewwe, Paul, 1996.
"The relevance of standard estimates of rates of return to schooling for education policy: A critical assessment ,"
Journal of Development Economics ,
Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 267-290, December.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Schultz, T. Paul, 1988.
"Education investments and returns ,"
Handbook of Development Economics ,
in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 543-630
Elsevier.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2008.
"Formulating, Identifying and Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation ,"
Journal of Human Resources ,
University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Joshua D. Angrist & Victor Lavy, 2002.
"The Effect of High School Matriculation Awards: Evidence from Randomized Trials ,"
NBER Working Papers
9389, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Full
references Cited by : (explanations , Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile , click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Mogues, Tewodaj, 2008.
"A two-dimensional measure of polarization: ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
837, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Yesuf, Mahmud & di Falco, Salvatore & Deressa, Temesgen & Ringler, Claudia & Kohlin, Gunnar, 2008.
"The impact of climate change and adaptation on food production in low-income countries: Evidence from the Nile Basin, Ethiopia ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
828, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: Behrman, Jere R. & Murphy, Alexis & Quisumbing, Agnes & Ramakrishnan,Usha & Yount, Kathyrn, 2006.
"What is the real impact of schooling on age of first union and age of first parenting ? New evidence from Guatemala ,"
Policy Research Working Paper Series
4023, The World Bank.
[Downloadable!]
Dercon, Stefan & Gilligan, Daniel O. & Hoddinott, John & Woldehan, Tassew, 2008.
"The impact of agricultural extension and roads on poverty and consumption growth in fifteen Ethiopian villages: ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
840, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: Cororaton, Caesar B., 2008.
"The Philippines: Shadow WTO Agricultural Domestic Support Notifications ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
827, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
John Maluccio & John Hoddinott, International Food Policy Research Institute & Jere R. Behrman, University of Pennsylvania & Reynaldo Martorell, Emory University & Agnes R. Quisumbing, International F, 2006.
"The Impact of Nutrition during Early Childhood on Education among Guatemalan Adults ,"
Middlebury College Working Paper Series
0614, Middlebury College, Department of Economics.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions: Maluccio, John A. & Hoddinott, John & Behrman, Jere R. & Martorell, Reynaldo & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Stein, Aryeh D., 2006.
"The impact of an experimental nutritional intervention in childhood on education among Guatemalan adults: ,"
FCND discussion papers
207, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Gilligan, Daniel O. & Hoddinott, John & Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum, 2008.
"The impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme and its linkages: ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
839, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Akpalu, Wisdom & Hassan, Rashid M. & Ringler, Claudia, 2008.
"Climate variability and maize yield in South Africa: Results from GME and MELE methods ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
843, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Cudjoe, Godsway & Breisinger, Clemens & Diao, Xinshen, 2008.
"Local impacts of a global crisis: Food price transmission and poverty impacts in Ghana ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
842, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Ruan, Jianqing & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2008.
"Credit constraints, organizational choice, and returns to capital: Evidence from a rural industrial cluster in China ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
830, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Bryan, Elizabeth & Akpalu, Wisdom & Yesuf, Mahmud & Ringler, Claudia, 2008.
"Global carbon markets: Are there opportunities for Sub-Saharan Africa? ,"
IFPRI discussion papers
832, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Access and
download statistics Did you know? IDEAS also indexes software components .
This page was last updated on 2009-11-16.
This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics , College of Liberal Arts and Sciences , University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics .