Linear decompositions of cognitive achievement gaps:  a cautionary note and an illustration using Peruvian data

Juan F. Castro

Linear decompositions of cognitive achievement gaps: a cautionary note and an illustration using Peruvian data

Producción científica: Documento de trabajo

Resumen

Las brechas de desarrollo entre los niños de diversos fondos socioeconómicos emergen temprano y persisten en un cierto plazo. La formación cognoscitiva de la habilidad es un proceso acumulativo y, así, todas las influencias relevantes que ocurrieron hasta que se mide la habilidad del tiempo pueden desempeñar papel en formar estas brechas. Las descomposiciones lineares basadas en la técnica de la Oaxaca-Blinder son una manera bastante común de estimar la contribución de dos o más categorías de variables a estas diferencias en el logro cognoscitivo. Dos ejemplos prominentes de estas categorías son influencias de la familia y de la escuela. Al respeto, los objetos expuestos de la literatura no tienen ningún consenso en términos de estrategia de la descomposición y la interpretación de sus componentes, tan bien como una tendencia a separar influencias del hogar y de la escuela asignando todas las características observadas de la casa, familia y del niño a la primera categoría. Esto puedo conducir a las implicaciones engañosas de la política y a los diagonales en las contribuciones estimadas de las categorías. Este análisis intenta contribuir a la literatura de dos maneras. Primero, explora formalmente el potencial para los diagonales en los ejercicios de la descomposición procurados hasta ahora. En segundo lugar, ofrece una estrategia alternativa de la descomposición constante con supuestos del comportamiento explícitas con respecto a la determinación de las entradas de la habilidad. Esto previene opciones arbitrarias en términos de técnica de la descomposición, sus componentes e interpretación, y también hace los diagonales menos propensos del análisis. Ilustro de manera empírica los puntos principales del análisis que emplea un dataset que contenga la información longitudinal sobre cuentas de la prueba, familia y características cognoscitivas de la escuela, para descomponer la brecha cognoscitiva de la habilidad observada, en la edad de 8 años entre los niños urbanos y rurales en Perú.

Idioma original	Inglés
Lugar de publicación	Perú
Estado	Publicada - 2015

Palabras clave

Descomposición Blinder-Oaxaca
Habilidades cognitivas--Perú

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http://hdl.handle.net/11354/1099

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title = "Linear decompositions of cognitive achievement gaps: a cautionary note and an illustration using Peruvian data",

abstract = "Developmental gaps between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds emerge early and persist over time. Cognitive skill formation is a cumulative process and, thus, all relevant influences that took place until the time skill is measured can play role in shaping these gaps. Linear decompositions based on the Oaxaca-Blinder technique are a fairly common way of estimating the contribution of two or more categories of variables to these differences in cognitive achievement. Two prominent examples of these categories are family and school influences. In this regard, the literature exhibits no consensus in terms of decomposition strategy and interpretation of its components, as well as a tendency to separate home and school influences by assigning all observed household, family and child characteristics to the first category. I argue this can lead to misleading policy implications and to biases in the estimated contributions of the categories. This analysis seeks to contribute to the literature in two ways. First, it formally explores the potential for biases in the decomposition exercises attempted so far. Second, it offers an alternative decomposition strategy consistent with explicit behavioral assumptions regarding the determination of skill inputs. This prevents arbitrary choices in terms of decomposition technique, its components and interpretation, and also makes the analysis less prone to biases. I illustrate empirically the main points of the analysis employing a rich dataset that contains longitudinal information on cognitive test scores, family and school characteristics, to decompose the cognitive skill gap observed, at age 8, between urban and rural children in Peru.",

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author = "Castro, {Juan F.}",

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N2 - Developmental gaps between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds emerge early and persist over time. Cognitive skill formation is a cumulative process and, thus, all relevant influences that took place until the time skill is measured can play role in shaping these gaps. Linear decompositions based on the Oaxaca-Blinder technique are a fairly common way of estimating the contribution of two or more categories of variables to these differences in cognitive achievement. Two prominent examples of these categories are family and school influences. In this regard, the literature exhibits no consensus in terms of decomposition strategy and interpretation of its components, as well as a tendency to separate home and school influences by assigning all observed household, family and child characteristics to the first category. I argue this can lead to misleading policy implications and to biases in the estimated contributions of the categories. This analysis seeks to contribute to the literature in two ways. First, it formally explores the potential for biases in the decomposition exercises attempted so far. Second, it offers an alternative decomposition strategy consistent with explicit behavioral assumptions regarding the determination of skill inputs. This prevents arbitrary choices in terms of decomposition technique, its components and interpretation, and also makes the analysis less prone to biases. I illustrate empirically the main points of the analysis employing a rich dataset that contains longitudinal information on cognitive test scores, family and school characteristics, to decompose the cognitive skill gap observed, at age 8, between urban and rural children in Peru.

AB - Developmental gaps between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds emerge early and persist over time. Cognitive skill formation is a cumulative process and, thus, all relevant influences that took place until the time skill is measured can play role in shaping these gaps. Linear decompositions based on the Oaxaca-Blinder technique are a fairly common way of estimating the contribution of two or more categories of variables to these differences in cognitive achievement. Two prominent examples of these categories are family and school influences. In this regard, the literature exhibits no consensus in terms of decomposition strategy and interpretation of its components, as well as a tendency to separate home and school influences by assigning all observed household, family and child characteristics to the first category. I argue this can lead to misleading policy implications and to biases in the estimated contributions of the categories. This analysis seeks to contribute to the literature in two ways. First, it formally explores the potential for biases in the decomposition exercises attempted so far. Second, it offers an alternative decomposition strategy consistent with explicit behavioral assumptions regarding the determination of skill inputs. This prevents arbitrary choices in terms of decomposition technique, its components and interpretation, and also makes the analysis less prone to biases. I illustrate empirically the main points of the analysis employing a rich dataset that contains longitudinal information on cognitive test scores, family and school characteristics, to decompose the cognitive skill gap observed, at age 8, between urban and rural children in Peru.

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KW - Descomposición Blinder-Oaxaca

KW - Habilidades cognitivas--Perú

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BT - Linear decompositions of cognitive achievement gaps

CY - Perú

ER -

Linear decompositions of cognitive achievement gaps: a cautionary note and an illustration using Peruvian data

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