Replication Data for: "Age and Cognitive Skills: Use It or Lose It" by Hanushek, Kinne, Witthoeft, and Woessmann

Cross-sectional age-skill profiles suggest that cognitive skills
start declining by age thirty if not earlier. If accurate, such age-driven
skill losses pose a major threat to the human capital of societies with rapidly
aging populations. We estimate actual age-skill profiles from individual
changes in literacy and numeracy skills at different ages. We use the unique
German longitudinal component of the Programme of the International Assessment
of Adult Competencies (PIAAC-L) that retested a large representative sample of
adults after 3.5 years. Our empirical approach separates age from cohort
effects and corrects for measurement error from reversion to the mean. Two main
results emerge. First, average skills increase strongly into the forties before
decreasing slightly in literacy and more strongly in numeracy. Second, skills
decline at older ages only for those with below-average skill usage. White-collar
and higher-educated workers with above-average usage show increasing skills even
beyond their forties. Women have larger skill losses at older age, particularly
in numeracy. <br>