One important determinant of the potential benefits of such policies is the number of children with absenteeism problems. The first national estimate of differences in absenteeism shows absenteeism is greater for welfare children than for other children. Income differences account for a large share of this absenteeism gap, especially among teenagers. Skill formation is a dynamic process with strong synergistic components. Skill begets skill.
Early investment promotes later investment.
Noncognitive skills motivation are important determinants of success and these can be improved more successfully and at later ages than basic cognitiveskills. Methods currently used to evaluate educational interventions ignore these noncogntive skills and therefore substantially understate the benefits of early intervention programs and mentoring and teenage motivation programs. At current levels of investment, American society underinvests in the very young and overinvests in mature adults with low skills. The authors whether evidence of sizeable and persistent rates of return to working while enrolled in school, especially high school, on subsequent wage growth may be due to the individual differences in young adults' capacities to acquire such skills and be productive in the work force later in life. Their results indicate a decided lack of robustness to the inference about the effects of working while in school that has been drawn from previous work.