Chapter 1. Introduction education and inspect the extent to which these levels relate to their levels at the end of primary education. To this end, I take into account the socioeconomic background of the students and their primary school. Furthermore, I examine the extent to which achievement gaps observed at the end of primary school originate in the early years of primary education. The analysis touches upon the question whether skill differences among categories of individuals within the educational system increase, decrease, or stabilize. While the framework of Kautz et al. (2014) does not implicitly visualize the connection between varying skills, skills do not stand alone. Cunha and Heckman (2007) notice the ‘cross-productivity’ of skills, which describes that the stock of one skill relates to the stock of another skill in the next period. The fourth chapter, which also focuses on skill development during primary education, provides insights into the interplay among various basic skills in the primary school years. I explore this interplay by simulating a hypothetical shock to a single skill within a student’s skill set and examining the resulting patterns across the entire set of skills. This thought experiment illustrates typical patterns of co-movement among skills in a descriptive and conceptual manner. It may help policymakers understand the interplay between skills and examine how different educational interventions relate to patterns of skill development. 8
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw