Human capital indicators as influenced by SES, cognitive and non-cognitive skills: Evidence from Taiwan’s most recent PISA survey

Taiwan’s high performance in the PISA surveys has not been unnoticed by researchers. However, both individual level research and cross-national research relevant for Taiwan’s PISA achievement is typically lacking, especially as regards the latest survey. This article examined Taiwan’s PISA mathematics and reading achievement in 2018 in two complementary studies, using individual level data ( N  = 7243) and cross-national data with aggregated data for 32 countries. At the individual level, socioeconomic and non-cognitive variables explain the most variance of PISA mathematics and reading. At the cross-national level, Taiwan’s greatest comparative advantage is the high cognitive abilities among schoolchildren. Individual level PISA data would likely benefit from cognitive ability tests and Five-Factor model variables as there is substantial unexplained variance.