Human capital indicators as influenced by SES, cognitive and non-cognitive skills: evidence from Taiwan’s PISA performance

Abstract Taiwan’s high performance in the PISA surveys has not been unnoticed by researchers. However, both individual level research and cross-national research which is relevant for Taiwan’s PISA achievement is typically lacking, especially as regards later surveys. This article examined Taiwan’s PISA mathematics and reading achievement in 2018, using individual level data (Valid N = 6863) and cross-national data with aggregated data for 77 countries. At the individual level, socioeconomic and non-cognitive variables explain the most variance of PISA mathematics and reading. At the cross-national level, cognitive ability and average income were statistically significant with cognitive ability as the strongest predictor. As Taiwan has a high level of average cognitive ability it may regarded as a strong comparative advantage with regard to human capital.