We provide evidence that the robust association between cognitive skills and economic growth reflects a causal effect of cognitive skills and supports the economic benefits of effective school policy. We develop a new common metric that allows tracking student achievement across countries, over time, and along the within-country distribution.…

The panoply of possible factors contributing to the observed earnings differences between blacks and whites exceeds current analytical abilities. Thus, this paper concentrates on a limited range of factors: skill differences among workers, geographic location (or labor market), and race. Skill differences are measured by schooling and experience…