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Title: The Effect of Schooling and Ability on Achievement Test Scores
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Hansen, Karsten T.
Heckman, James J.
Mullen, Kathleen J.
The Effect of Schooling and Ability on Achievement Test Scores
IZA Discussion Papers 826, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), July 2003.
Also: ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp826.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Bayesian; Cognitive Ability; Education; Endogeneity; I.Q.; Schooling; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper develops two methods for estimating the effect of schooling on achievement test scores that control for the endogeneity of schooling by postulating that both schooling and test scores are generated by a common unobserved latent ability. These methods are applied to data on schooling and test scores. Estimates from the two methods are in close agreement. We find that the effects of schooling on test scores are roughly linear across schooling levels. The effects of schooling on measured test scores are slightly larger for lower latent ability levels. We find that schooling increases the AFQT score on average between 2 and 4 percentage points, roughly twice as large as the effect claimed by Herrnstein and Murray (1994) but in agreement with estimates produced by Neal and Johnson (1996) and Winship and Korenman (1997). We extend the previous literature by estimating the impact of schooling on measured test scores at various quantiles of the latent ability distribution.

Also available as:
NBER Working Papers 9881, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Working Paper Series 2003:13, IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation.

Bibliography Citation
Hansen, Karsten T., James J. Heckman and Kathleen J. Mullen. "The Effect of Schooling and Ability on Achievement Test Scores." IZA Discussion Papers 826, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), July 2003.