PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Laajaj, Rachid
AU  - Macours, Karen
TI  - Measuring Skills in Developing Countries
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.56.4.1018-9805R1
DP  - 2019 Oct 14
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1018-9805R1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2019/10/07/jhr.56.4.1018-9805R1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2019/10/07/jhr.56.4.1018-9805R1.full
AB  - Measures of cognitive, noncognitive, and technical skills are increasingly used in developing country surveys, but have mostly been validated in high-income countries. We use a survey experiment in Western Kenya to test the reliability and validity of commonly used skills measures. Cognitive skills measures are found to be reliable and internally consistent, technical skills are very noisy, and measurement error in noncognitive skills is found to be non-classical. Addressing both random and systematic measurement error using common psychometric practices and repeated measures leads to some improvements and clearer predictions, though concerns remain. These findings hold for a replication in Colombia.