Cognitive Skills Beyond Childhood

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bolt, Uta
• 署名单位: University of Bristol
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaf107
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: life-cycle; intelligence; education; trajectories; TECHNOLOGY; OCCUPATION; experience; retirement; abilities; returns

摘要

This paper documents how cognitive skills develop beyond childhood. Using unique data from a British birth cohort followed since 1958, I link cognitive skills in childhood to cognitive skills at 50. I establish five facts from these data. First, childhood cognitive skills persist strongly into adulthood. Second, wages at 50 are better predicted by cognitive skills at 16 than by cognitive skills at 50. Third, higher education predicts higher cognitive skills and wages. Fourth, occupational choice predicts wages, but not cognitive skills at 50. Fifth, periods out of the labour market depreciate wages, but not cognitive skills at 50.