The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation
Open accessAbstract
This paper formulates and estimates multistage production functions for child cognitive and noncognitive skills. Output is determined by parental environments and investments at different stages of childhood. We estimate the elasticity of substitution between investments in one period and stocks of skills in that period to assess the benefits of early investment in children compared to later remediation. We establish nonparametric identification of a general class of nonlinear factor models. A by-product of our approach is a framework for evaluating childhood interventions that does not rely on arbitrarily scaled test scores as outputs and recognizes the differential effects of skills in different tasks. Using the estimated technology, we determine optimal targeting of interventions to children with different parental and personal birth endowments. Substitutability decreases in later stages of the life cycle for the production of cognitive skills. It increases in later stages of the life cycle for the production of noncognitive skills. This finding has important implications for the design of policies that target the disadvantaged. For some configurations of disadvantage and outcomes, it is optimal to invest relatively more in the later stages of childhood.
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Cites
The effects of cognitive and noncognitive abilities on labor market outcomes and social behavior
Heckman, J. J., Stixrud, J., & Urzua, S. (2006) · Journal of Labor Economics · doi:10.1086/504455 · Cited by 4,427
Self-citationHuman Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families
Becker, G. S., & Tomes, N. (1986) · Journal of Labor Economics · doi:10.1086/298118 · Cited by 2,913
Meaney, M. J. (2001) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.1161 · Cited by 2,708
An Equilibrium Theory of the Distribution of Income and Intergenerational Mobility
Becker, G. S., & Tomes, N. (1979) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/260831 · Cited by 2,243
On the Specification and Estimation of the Production Function for Cognitive Achievement
Todd, P. E., & Wolpin, K. I. (2003) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.1111/1468-0297.00097 · Cited by 1,514
Formulating, Identifying and Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation
Cunha, F., & Heckman, J. J. (2008) · Journal of Human Resources · doi:10.3368/jhr.43.4.738 · Cited by 1,468
Self-citationExperience and brain development
Greenough, W. T., Black, J. E., & Wallace, C. S. (1987) · Child Development · doi:10.2307/1130197 · Cited by 1,398
The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program
Heckman, J. J., Moon, S. H., Pinto, R., Savelyev, P. A., & Yavitz, A. (2010) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.11.001 · Cited by 1,341
Self-citationUnderstanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School
Fryer, R. G., & Levitt, S. D. (2004) · Review of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.1162/003465304323031049 · Cited by 936
Personality differences in childhood and adolescence: Measurement development, and consequences
Shiner, R., & Caspi, A. (2003) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00101 · Cited by 701
Cited by
Heckman, J. J., & Kautz, T. (2012) · Labour Economics · doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2012.05.014 · Cited by 2,007
Self-citationHeckman, J., Pinto, R., & Savelyev, P. (2013) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.103.6.2052 · Cited by 1,628
Self-citationThe Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children
Heckman, J. J., & Masterov, D. V. (2007) · Review of Agricultural Economics · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9353.2007.00359.x · Cited by 1,217
The economics, technology, and neuroscience of human capability formation.
Heckman, J. J. (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0701362104 · Cited by 1,042
Self-citationFinancial Literacy, Financial Education, and Economic Outcomes
Hastings, J. S., Madrian, B. C., & Skimmyhorn, W. L. (2013) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-082312-125807 · Cited by 1,041
Metadata
- Venue
- Econometrica
- Publisher
- The Econometric Society
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 78
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 883-931
- ISSN
- 0012-9682 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3122967851
- Cited by
- 1,603
- References
- 11
- FWCI
- 351.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
