IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucn/oapubs/10197-732.html

Functional literacy, educational attainment and earnings : evidence from the international adult literacy survey

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Denny
  • Colm Harmon
  • Sandra Redmond

Abstract

In this paper a rich and innovative dataset, the International Adult Literacy Survey, is used to examine the impact of functional literacy on earnings. The IALS surveys 12 OECD countries and sub-regions via a consistent questionnaire and includes a number of tests of numeracy and literacy, as well as basic labour market information. This paper examines the effect of these skills on labour market earnings for the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and for Great Britain. The estimates suggest that while ability has a role in determining earnings the dominant factor remains formal education. It is shown that, particularly for Great Britain, there is a positive interaction between the test score and education in determining earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Denny & Colm Harmon & Sandra Redmond, 2000. "Functional literacy, educational attainment and earnings : evidence from the international adult literacy survey," Open Access publications 10197/732, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/732
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/732
    File Function: First version, 2000
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:fth:prinin:411 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Mark B. Stewart, 1983. "On Least Squares Estimation when the Dependent Variable is Grouped," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(4), pages 737-753.
    3. Amanda Gosling & Stephen Machin & Costas Meghir, 1998. "The changing distribution of male wages in the UK, 1966-1992," IFS Working Papers W98/09, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Orley Ashenfelter & Cecilia Rouse, 1998. "Schooling, Intelligence, and Income in America: Cracks in the Bell Curve," Working Papers 786, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    5. Charette, Michael & Meng, Ronald, 1994. "Explaining language proficiency : Objective versus self-assessed measures of literacy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 313-321.
    6. Harmon, Colm & Walker, Ian, 1999. "The marginal and average returns to schooling in the UK," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4-6), pages 879-887, April.
    7. Kevin Denny & Colm Harmon, 2001. "Testing for sheepskin effects in earnings equations: evidence for five countries," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(9), pages 635-637.
    8. John Cawley & Karen Conneely & James Heckman & Edward Vytlacil, 1996. "Cognitive Ability, Wages, and Meritocracy," NBER Working Papers 5645, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. William W. Gould & Jeffrey Pitblado & Brian Poi, 2010. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation with Stata," Stata Press books, StataCorp LLC, edition 4, number ml4, March.
    10. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Tussing, A. Dale, 1978. "Irish Educational Expenditures - Past, Present, and Future," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number GRS92.
    12. Denny, Kevin & Harmon, Colm & Redmond, Sandra, 1999. "Wages and Human Capital: Evidence from the Irish Data," Papers 99/3, College Dublin, Department of Political Economy-.
    13. repec:pri:indrel:dsp01s7526c41b is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Harmon, Harmon & Ian Walker, 1996. "The marginal and average returns to schooling," IFS Working Papers W96/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    15. Alan B. Krueger & Mikael Lindahl, 1998. "Education for Growth in Sweden and the World," Working Papers 790, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    16. Alan Barrett & Tim Callan & Brian Nolan, 1999. "Rising Wage Inequality, Returns to Education and Labour Market Institutions: Evidence from Ireland," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 77-100, March.
    17. Orley Ashenfelter & Cecilia E. Rouse, 1998. "Schooling, Intelligence, and Income in America: Cracks in the Bell Curve," Working Papers 786, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    18. repec:fth:prinin:407 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, August.
    21. Boissiere, M & Knight, J B & Sabot, R H, 1985. "Earnings, Schooling, Ability, and Cognitive Skills," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 1016-1030, December.
    22. Kevin Denny & Colm Harmon, 1999. "Wages and human capital," Open Access publications 10197/145, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    23. Amanda Gosling & Stephen Machin & Costas Meghir, 2000. "The Changing Distribution of Male Wages in the U.K," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 67(4), pages 635-666.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. O'Connell, Philip J. & Russell, Helen & FitzGerald, John, 2006. "Human Resources," Book Chapters, in: Morgenroth, Edgar (ed.),Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    2. Lane, Philip & McCoy, Selina & Smith, Stephen & Smyth, Emer & Van Soest, Arthur & Walsh, John R., 2003. "Budget Perspectives 2004," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BMI172 edited by Callan, Tim & Doris, Aedin & McCoy, Daniel.
    3. Fahey, Tony & Russell, Helen & FitzGerald, John, 2006. "Childcare," Book Chapters, in: Morgenroth, Edgar (ed.),Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    4. Morgenroth, Edgar & FitzGerald, John & FitzGerald, John, 2006. "Productive Sector," Book Chapters, in: Morgenroth, Edgar (ed.),Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013, chapter 20, pages 257-277, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    5. Kristof De Witte & Wim Groot & Henri?tte Maassen van den Brink, 2012. "The Efficiency of Education in Generating Literacy: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 2, pages 25-37, February.
    6. Morgenroth, Edgar & FitzGerald, John & FitzGerald, John, 2006. "Summary and Conclusions," Book Chapters, in: Morgenroth, Edgar (ed.),Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013, chapter 24, pages 317-333, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
      • Baker, Terence J. & FitzGerald, John & Honohan, Patrick & FitzGerald, John & Honohan, Patrick, 1996. "Summary and Conclusions," Book Chapters, in: Baker, Terence J. (ed.),Economic Implications for Ireland of EMU, chapter 12, pages 339-352, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    7. Kitty Stewart, 2002. "Measuring Well-Being and Exclusion in Europes Regions," CASE Papers case53, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    8. Denny, K.J. & Harmon, C.P., 2000. "Education Policy Reform and the Return to Schooling from Instrumental Variables," Papers 00/12, College Dublin, Department of Political Economy-.
    9. Fahey, Tony & Scott, Susan & FitzGerald, John, 2006. "Sports and Arts," Book Chapters, in: Morgenroth, Edgar (ed.),Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    10. Kevin Denny & Colm Harmon, 2001. "Testing for sheepskin effects in earnings equations: evidence for five countries," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(9), pages 635-637.
    11. Hanushek, Eric A. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2011. "The Economics of International Differences in Educational Achievement," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 89-200, Elsevier.
    12. McCoy, Selina & Smyth, Emer, 2003. "Educational Expenditure: Implications for Equality," Papers BP2004/4, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    13. Kitty Stewart, 2002. "Measuring Well-Being and Exclusion in Europe's Regions," CASE Papers 053, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    14. Morgenroth, Edgar & FitzGerald, John (ed.), 2006. "Ex-ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number PRS59.
    15. Tate, Robert & Finlayson, Greg & MacWilliam, Leonard & Wiley, Miriam M. & Morgenroth, Edgar & FitzGerald, John, 2006. "Health," Book Chapters, in: Morgenroth, Edgar (ed.),Ex-Ante Evaluation of the Investment Priorities for the National Development Plan 2007-2013, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    16. Rocha, Maúna Soares de Baldini & Ponczek, Vladimir Pinheiro, 2010. "Impacto da alfabetização de adultos sobre salário e emprego," Textos para discussão 215, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    17. Kevin Denny, 2002. "New methods for comparing literacy across populations: insights from the measurement of poverty," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 165(3), pages 481-493, October.
    18. repec:esr:chaptr:jacb200312 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Kitty Stewart, 2002. "Measuring Well-Being and Exclusion in Europe s Regions," LIS Working papers 303, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    2. Colm Harmon & Kevin Denny & Vincent O'Sullivan, 2003. "Education, earnings and skills : a multi-country comparison," Open Access publications 10197/649, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    3. Kevin Denny & Colm Harmon & Vincent O'Sullivan, 2003. "Functional literacy, educational attainment and earnings : a multi-country comparison," Working Papers 200319, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    4. Colm Harmon & Hessel Oosterbeek & Ian Walker, 2003. "The Returns to Education: Microeconomics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 115-156, April.
    5. Byoung Uk Kang & Jin-Mo Kim & Oded Palmon & Zhaodong Zhong, 2020. "Are college education and job experience complements or substitutes? Evidence from hedge fund portfolio performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1247-1278, May.
    6. Colm Harmon & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2000. "The Returns to Education: A Review of Evidence, Issues and Deficiencies in the Literature," CEE Discussion Papers 0005, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    7. Harmon, Colm & Hogan, Vincent & Walker, Ian, 2003. "Dispersion in the economic return to schooling," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 205-214, April.
    8. Cinzia Rienzo, 2017. "Real wages, wage inequality and the regional cost-of-living in the UK," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1309-1335, June.
    9. Balestra, Simone & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2017. "Heterogeneous returns to education over the wage distribution: Who profits the most?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 89-105.
    10. Green, David A. & Worswick, Christopher, 2012. "Immigrant earnings profiles in the presence of human capital investment: Measuring cohort and macro effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 241-259.
    11. Adriaan Kalwij, 2000. "Estimating the economic return to schooling on the basis of panel data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 61-71.
    12. Hogan, Vincent & Walker, Ian, 2007. "Education choice under uncertainty: Implications for public policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 894-912, December.
    13. Neumann, George & Olitsky, Neal & Robbins, Steve, 2009. "Job congruence, academic achievement, and earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 503-509, October.
    14. Mañé Vernet, Ferran, 2010. "El retorno a las competencias para los titulados universitarios catalanes," Working Papers 2072/179591, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    15. Matt Dickson, 2013. "The Causal Effect of Education on Wages Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(4), pages 477-498, August.
    16. Jere Behrman & John Hoddinott & John Maluccio & Erica Soler-Hampejsek & Emily Behrman & Reynaldo Martorell & Manuel Ramírez-Zea & Aryeh Stein, 2014. "What determines adult cognitive skills? Influences of pre-school, school, and post-school experiences in Guatemala," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 23(1), pages 1-32, December.
    17. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2859-2939 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Concetta, MENDOLICCHIO, 2006. "A Disaggregate Analysis of Private Returns to Education in Italy," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2006054, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    19. Fatma El-Hamidi, 2009. "Education-Occupation Mismatch and the Effect on Wages of Egyptian Workers," Working Papers 474, Economic Research Forum, revised Mar 2009.
    20. Darragh Flannery & Cathal O'Donoghue, 2016. "Utilizing Microsimulation to Estimate the Private and Fiscal Returns to Education: Ireland 1987–2011," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(1), pages 55-80, January.
    21. Jennie Brand & Dwight Davis, 2011. "The Impact of College Education on Fertility: Evidence for Heterogeneous Effects," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 863-887, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/732. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: UCD School of Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/educdie.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.