TY  - JOUR
AU  - Murnane,Richard J.
AU  - Willett,John B.
AU  - Levy,Frank
TI  - The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5076
PY  - 1995
Y2  - March 1995
DO  - 10.3386/w5076
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5076
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5076.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard Murnane
Graduate School of Education
Harvard University
6 Appian Way - Gutman 469
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/496-4820
Fax: 617/496-3095
E-Mail: richard_murnane@harvard.edu

Frank Levy
c/o Harriette Crawford
Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning
Building 9-517
MIT
Cambridge, MA 02139
E-Mail: flevy@mit.edu
AB  - Using data from two longitudinal surveys of American high school seniors, we show that basic cognitive skills had a larger impact on wages for 24-year-old men and women in 1986 than in 1978.  For women, the increase in the return to cognitive skills between 1978 and 1986 accounts for all of the increase in the wage premium associated with post-secondary education.  We also show that high school seniors' mastery of basic cognitive skills had a much smaller impact on wages two years after graduation than on wages six years after graduation.
ER  -