Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/174544 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
LEM Working Paper Series No. 2016/35
Publisher: 
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Pisa
Abstract: 
A swelling stream of literature employs age-heaping as an indicator of human capital, more specifically of numeracy. We re-examine this connection in light of evidence drawn from nineteenth century Italy: census data, death records, and direct, qualitative evidence on age-awareness and numeracy. Though it can stand in as an acceptable proxy for literacy, our findings suggest that age-heaping is most plausibly interpreted as a broad indicator of cultural and institutional modernisation rather than a measure of cognitive skills.
Subjects: 
Age-Heaping
Numeracy
Human capital
Italy
JEL: 
N33
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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