NON-COGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN CAPITAL AND LIFE OUTCOMES

Abstract

The modern theory of human capital no longer interprets education, professional qualifications, and work experience as the only sources of income and labor productivity. There is a growing interest in the research of non-cognitive characteristics of human capital, which represent the socio-psychological qualities of an individual that affect the capitalization of knowledge and skills. The author focuses on such non-cognitive characteristics of human capital as self-efficacy, resilience, and agency. The article aims to analyze the relationship between non-cognitive characteristics of human capital and indicators of individual achievement (economic and non-economic). Applied descriptive sociological research is conducted in accordance with the positivist paradigm. Frequency distributions, comparison of averages, and correlation method are used in data analysis. The sampling represents the working population of the region (n = 1 261). The results show that self-efficacy, resilience and agency are represented differently in various socio-demographic, professional and status groups, but these differences are small. Life results are statistically significantly correlated with the values of the indices of non-cognitive characteristics of human capital. Correlations between economic achievements (job satisfaction, professional fulfillment) are higher than correlations with non-economic achievements (life satisfaction, confidence in the future). The author concludes that individuals demonstrate not only higher subjective assessments of life achievements, but also have higher wages if they are more confident in their abilities when solving work tasks, persistent in achieving professional goals, and independent in their activity.