Measuring skill: a multi-dimensional index

Abstract

Traditionally, skill is measured concentrating on just one dimension of the worker's ability, usually years of schooling or the blue/white collar nature of the job. This paper proposes a measure of skill that combines, in a multiplicative way, several of the observed components of skill, as well as its unobserved dimension. The proposed index is intuitivlely appealing and it is flexible, in the sense that it can accomodate as many (or as little) dimensions of human capital as feasible and suitable for the analysis to be undertaken.