TY - JOUR T1 - Measuring Skills in Developing Countries JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour DO - 10.3368/jhr.56.4.1018-9805R1 SP - 1018-9805R1 AU - Rachid Laajaj AU - Karen Macours Y1 - 2019/10/14 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2019/10/07/jhr.56.4.1018-9805R1.abstract N2 - 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. ER -