Do literacy and numeracy pay off? On the relationship between basic skills and earnings

What is the value of basic skills in the German labor market which until recently was considered to be strongly regulated but has gained flexibility in the last 15 years? To answer this question, we examine the relationship between adults' literacy, numeracy and earnings. We use data from the ALWA-ADIAB database, which is a test augmented survey linked to administrative data, making information on both skills and earnings most accurate. Preliminary results indicate that earnings are positively related to both types of skills. This relationship is more pronounced for numeracy than for literacy. Heterogenous results are found when running separate regressions for sub-groups, for instance by sex.