Skills are a central source of high productivity and economic well-being. But what do we mean by productive skills? Both with regard to measurement and policy, the primary focus in the U.S. has been on academic skills, as measured by tests of reading, writing and math abilities and by...

This paper examines the empirical relationship between early employment activity and school continuation decisions for American women ages 16 to 24. We formulate a sequential schooling choice model that guides our exploration of these crucial life-cycle decisions. Our estimation strategy takes...