%0 Report
        %A New, Sonja C. de
%A Schurer, Stefanie
%A Leung, Felix
        %T Testing the Validity of Item Non-Response as a Proxy for Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills
        %D 2015
        %8 2015 Feb
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 8874
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp8874
        %X Cognitive and non-cognitive skills are important determinants of labor market outcomes, but are often unobserved. We propose a proxy for these skills derived from item non-response information and a procedure to test its validity. Exploiting a unique data-collection feature of an Australian survey, we find that fraction answered on a self-completion questionnaire fulfils all necessary requirements to be a valid proxy for cognitive skills and outperforms alternative proxies derived from paradata. Fraction answered captures a third of the effect of cognitive ability on wages and education. We provide a simple solution to reduce omitted-variable biases by up to 11%.
        %K paradata
%K item non-response
%K proxy-variable approach
%K cognitive ability
%K non-cognitive skills
%K wages
%K education