Fasih, TazeenPatrinos, Harry AnthonySakellariou, Chris2014-02-052014-02-052013-11https://hdl.handle.net/10986/16917Little is known about which of the skills that make up workers' human capital contribute to higher earnings. Past empirical evidence suggest that most of the return to schooling is generated by effects or correlates unrelated to the skills measured by the available tests. This paper uses the International Adult Literacy and the Adult Literacy and Life Skills surveys to obtain multi-country estimates of the components of the return to schooling. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity and a dichotomy between two groups of countries. For a subgroup of educationally advanced countries, nearly half of the return to schooling can be attributed to labor marker-relevant functional literacy skills associated with schooling, while for a subgroup of less educationally advanced countries, such skills account for just over 20 percent of the return to schooling, while the return to schooling mostly reflects the signaling value of schooling.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOABOLITION OF FEESACHIEVEMENT SCORESACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORESACHIEVEMENT TESTSADULT LITERACYADULT POPULATIONSAVERAGE SCOREBASIC SKILLSBOOKS AT HOMECOGNITIVE ACHIEVEMENTCOGNITIVE SKILLSCOLLEGE EDUCATIONCOMPULSORY SCHOOLINGECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMICS OF EDUCATIONEDUCATED WORKERSEDUCATION INVESTMENTSEDUCATION OUTCOMESEDUCATION STATISTICSEDUCATION SYSTEMEDUCATION SYSTEMSEDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTEDUCATIONAL LEVELSEDUCATIONALLY ADVANCED COUNTRIESEFFECTIVE EDUCATIONFOUNDATION SKILLSFUNCTIONAL LITERACYFUNCTIONAL SKILLSHIGH SCHOOLHIGH SCHOOL GRADUATESHUMAN CAPITALHUMAN DEVELOPMENTINTERNATIONAL LITERACYLABOR FORCELABOR MARKETSLABOUR MARKETLANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTIONLEARNINGLEVEL OF LITERACYLIBRARIESLIFE SKILLSLITERACY SKILLSLITERACY SURVEYLITERACY SURVEYSLITERACY TESTLITERACY TESTSNUMERACYPAPERSPROBLEM SOLVINGPUBLIC SCHOOLSRATES OF RETURNREADINGREADING BOOKSRETURN TO EDUCATIONRETURNS TO EDUCATIONSCHOOL CONSTRUCTIONSCHOOL GRADUATESSCHOOL QUALITYSCHOOLINGSCHOOLSSKILLED WORKERSSTANDARDIZED TESTSTENURETEST SCORESVOUCHERSYOUTHWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-6697