Measuring Skills in Developing Countries

Abstract

Measures of cognitive, noncognitive, and technical skills are increasingly used in surveys in developing countries, 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 nonclassical. 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.