This paper studies the formation of math and verbal skills during compulsory education and their impact on educational attainment. Using longitudinal data that follow students in England from elementary school to university, we find that the production functions of math and verbal skills are inherently different, where cross effects are present only in the production of math skills. Results on long-term educational outcomes indicate that verbal skills play a substantially greater role in explaining university enrollment than math skills. This finding, combined with the large female advantage in verbal skills, has key implications for gender gaps in college enrollment. ? 2021 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

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1 October 2021

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Journal of Political Economy 129(10) , pp.2905-2946, 2021

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DOI: 10.1086/715417

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/715417

This Journal article is published under the centre's Education programme.