Ageing and skills: The case of literacy skills

Abstract

The relationship between ageing and skills is of growing policy significance due to population ageing, the changing nature of work and the importance of literacy for social and economic well-being. This article examines the relationship between age and literacy skills in a sample of OECD countries using three internationally comparable surveys. By pooling the survey data across time we can separate birth cohort and ageing effects. In doing so, we find that literacy skills decline with age and that, in most of our sample countries, successive birth cohorts tend to have poorer literacy outcomes. Therefore, once we control for cohort effects, the rate at which literacy proficiency falls with age is much more pronounced than that which is apparent, based on the cross-sectional relationship between age and literacy skills at a point in time. Further, in studying the literacy-age relationship across the skill distribution in Canada we find a more pronounced decline in literacy skills with age at lower percentiles, which suggests that higher initial literacy moderates the influence of cognitive ageing. | INTRODUC TI ONThe relationship between ageing and skills is of growing importance because of several inter-related developments. One is the ageing of the population in many developed countries because of large baby boom cohorts who are now at or nearing retirement age and who are followed by much smaller birth cohorts. Another is increased longevity and related factors, such as the declining incidence of defined benefit pension plans, the abolition of mandatory retirement and the extension of "normal retirement age" in public pension plans that are resulting in more individuals wanting to continue working beyond what was traditionally thought of as retirement age. The

Predictors of literacy in adulthood: Evidence from 33 countries

“…A comparison of the cohorts' literacy levels across countries and surveys uncovered two major findings. All these studies [23,24,[88][89][90] agree that the true effect of aging on literacy, after accounting for the cohort, is negative. That is, younger individuals show higher scores compared to older ones.…”

“…On the other hand, there may be aspects of the literacy skill that are (mostly) developed during formal education and then remain unused at or outside the workplace and home. It has been argued that these literacy-related skills do not convert into competencies and undergo loss [23,24], in line with…”

“…One group of controls is parental resources, i.e., an indirect index of how supportive home environment is for developing literacy skills and pursuing education. We included measures that prior literature deemed influential [23,24,[57][58][59][60][61]: education level of the mother and father, whether or not parents were immigrants, and the number of books in the household where the responder grew up [5,6]. We also included an occupational status of a person (EDWORK) with values indicating whether a person holds a job; is in education; both holds a job and is enrolled in formal education; is not employed but getting trained for job; or is not employed or in training.…”

“…A final component of observable age effect is the impact of a cohort. Forty-year-old participants in 2012 are characterized both by their age (40) and the educational and environmental experiences that differentiate their cohort (born in 1972) from others [24,88]. In a cross-sectional study like PIAAC, the effect of age is statistically indistinguishable from the cohort effect.…”

“…In a cross-sectional study like PIAAC, the effect of age is statistically indistinguishable from the cohort effect. To disentangle the two, recent studies [23,24] use synthetic cohorts, tracking a certain birth cohort through three comparable surveys conducted roughly 9 years apart from one another: see also [88,89] for alternative approaches. A comparison of the cohorts' literacy levels across countries and surveys uncovered two major findings.…”