Determinants of Cognitive Skills and Competencies: Preliminary Statistical Analysis of PIAAC Data

Abstract

The paper presents results of factor and regression analysis of determinants affecting cognitive skills assessed with PIAAC tests. Comparative analysis of competencies by occupation categories and by specializations shows that results of the Russian sample fall remarkably behind the average OECD scores in literacy and numeracy. The difference is especially perceptible between lawmakers, high-level public officials, top- and middle-level managers, most highly skilled professionals, and respondents from humanities, social sciences, business, law, mathematics, or computer sciences. However, respondents with low education levels (8 years of school or less) and unqualified workers scored better than their average European counterparts. OECD graduates from “natural sciences, mathematics and computer sciences” had higher points in numeracy in the PIAAC sample. Russia demonstrated almost no difference between the numeracy points obtained by people who majored in “humanities, languages and art”, “natural sciences, mathematics and computer sciences”, “engineering sciences, production and construction”, “health  are”, or “services”. We believe that graduates from “natural sciences, mathematics and computer sciences” cannot enjoy a competitive advantage in numeracy due to no rigid selection of school students, to the low-level requirements to university graduates, and to no efficient labor markets available.