Do Cognitive Test Scores Explain Higher U.S. Wage Inequality?
利用九国1994-1998年国际成人识字调查数据，发现美国认知测试分数分布更分散只能部分解释其更高的工资不平等，劳动力市场定价和残差不平等的作用更大。
Using microdata from the 1994-1998 International Adult Literacy Survey for nine countries, we examine the role of cognitive skills in explaining higher wage inequality in the United States. We find that while the greater dispersion of cognitive test scores in the United States plays a part in explaining higher U.S. wage inequality, higher labor market prices (i.e., higher returns to measured human capital and cognitive performance) and greater residual inequality still play important roles, and are, on average, quantitatively considerably more important than differences in the distribution of test scores in explaining higher U.S. wage inequality. © 2005 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.