Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation



skills matter for performance in most tasks in life and have different effects in different tasks
in the labor market and in other areas of social performance. Outcomes include test scores,
schooling, wages, occupational attainment, hours worked, criminal activity, and teenage
pregnancy.

In this paper, we identify and estimate a CES version of technology (2.1) where we assume
that θ
C,t, θN,t, IC,t, IN,t, θC,P , θN,P are scalars. Outputs of skills at stage s are governed by

θC,t+1 =


φs,C            φs,C            φs,C            φs,C            φs,C

γs,C,1θC,t + γs,C,2θN,t + γs,C,3IC,t + γs,C,4θC,P + γs,C,5θN,P


1
φs,C


(2.3)


and

1

φ        __ φs      φΦN,N  I _       Λφs,N  I _       T-φs,N  I _       Λφs,N  I _       Λφs,N  φs,N

(2.4)


θN,t+1 = γs,N,1θC,t + γs,N,2θN,t + γs,N,3IN,t + γs,N,4θC,P + γs,N,5θN,P
where γs,k,l [0, 1], l γs,k,l = 1 for k {C, N}, l {1, . . . , 5}, t {1, . . . , T } and s
{
1,...,S}. 1-φ fe is the elasticity of substitution in the inputs producing θk,t+1, where
φ
s,k (-∞, 1] for k {C, N}. It is a measure of how easy it is to compensate for low levels
of stocks θ
C,t and θN,t inherited from the previous period with current levels of investment
I
C,t and IN,t. For the moment, we ignore the shocks ηk,t in (2.1), although they play an
important role in our empirical analysis.

A CES specification of adult outcomes is:

Qj = nρj (Θc,t)φQj + (1 - Pj) (Θn,t)φQj OφQj ,                  (2.5)

where ρj [0,1], and φQj (-∞, 1] for j = 1,..., J. j—1— is the elasticity of substitution
1Q,j

between different skills in the production of outcome j . The ability of noncognitive skills
to compensate for cognitive deficits in producing adult outcomes is governed by φ
Q,j . The
importance of cognition in producing output in task j is governed by the share parameter
ρ
j.

To gain some insight into this model, consider a special case investigated in Cunha and
Heckman (2007) where childhood lasts two periods (T = 2), there is one adult outcome (“hu-
man capital”) so J = 1, and the elasticities of substitution are the same across technologies
(2.3) and (2.4) and in the outcome (2.5), so φ
s,C = φs,N = φQ = φ for all s {1, . . . , S}.
Assume that there is one investment good in each period that increases both cognitive and
noncognitive skills, though not necessarily by the same amount, (I
k,t It, k {C, N}). In
this case, the adult outcome is a function of investments, initial endowments, and parental



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