Importance Of Non-cognitive Skills Research Articles

Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China

The importance of noncognitive skills in determining long-term human capital and labor market outcomes is widely acknowledged, but relatively little is known about how educational investments by parents may respond to children’s noncognitive characteristics. This paper evaluates the parental response to noncognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu Province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the noncognitive measures of interest are defined as the inverse of both externalizing challenges (behavioral problems and aggression) and internalizing challenges (anxiety and withdrawal). The results suggest that there is significant heterogeneity with respect to maternal education. More-educated mothers appear to compensate for differences between their children, investing more in a child who exhibits greater noncognitive deficits, while less-educated mothers reinforce these differences. Most important, we present evidence that these compensatory investments are associated with the narrowing of noncognitive deficits over time for children of more-educated mothers, while there is no comparable pattern in households with less-educated mothers.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL MEASURE OF HUMAN CAPITAL AND EARNINGS IN UKRAINE: IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL POLICY ADVICE AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

For increasing effectiveness of organizational human resource management as well as for the national policy advice, it is important to assess how human capital factors, other than school attainment, influence individual earning returns, and to compare return to such factors across countries. However, the research of this area is not complete due to lack of data. As a result, there is limited cross-country understanding about how different labor markets reward extended human capital capabilities. This paper contributes to the existing research by studying the link between extended human capital factor and labor market return in Ukraine. It demonstrates the strong effect of development of emotional skills in childhood and the individual’s income as an adult. It also demonstrates that External Locus of Control strongly negatively affects wages. Furthermore, evidence is provided that Undergraduate School quality and individual health also affect wages. The paper contributes to the growing literature on importance of non-cognitive skills in labor market return.

Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-Cognitive Characteristics in Rural China

The importance of non-cognitive skills in determining long-term human capital and labor market outcomes is widely acknowledged, but relatively little is known about how educational investments by parents may respond to children’s non-cognitive characteristics. This paper evaluates the parental response to non-cognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the non-cognitive measures of interest are defined as the inverse of both externalizing challenges (behavioral problems and aggression) and internalizing challenges (anxiety and withdrawal). The results suggest that there is significant heterogeneity with respect to maternal education. More educated mothers appear to compensate for differences between their children, investing more in a child who exhibits greater non-cognitive deficits, while less educated mothers reinforce these differences. Most importantly, there is evidence that these compensatory investments are associated with the narrowing of non-cognitive deficits over time for children of more educated mothers, while there is no comparable pattern in households with less educated mothers.

On the interpretation of non-cognitive skills – What is being measured and why it matters

Across academic sub-fields such as labor, education, and behavioral economics, the measurement and interpretation of non-cognitive skills varies widely. As a result, it is difficult to compare results on the importance of non-cognitive skills across literatures. Drawing from these literatures, this paper systematically relates various prototypical non-cognitive measures within one data set. Specifically, we estimate and compare several different strategies for measuring non-cognitive skills. For each strategy, we compare their relative effectiveness at predicting educational success and decompose what is being measured into underlying personality traits and economic preferences. We demonstrate that the construction of the non-cognitive factor greatly influences what is actually measured, how it relates to more standard taxonomies and what conclusions are reached about the role of non-cognitive skills in life-outcomes such as educational attainment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, while sometimes difficult to interpret, factors extracted from self-reported behaviors can have predictive power similar to well established taxonomies, such as the Big Five.

On the Meaning of Grit…and Hope…and Fate Control…and Alienation…and Locus of Control…and…Self-Efficacy…and…Effort Optimism…and…

After a long period of emphasis on academic skills, researchers have recently shown growing interest in the importance of noncognitive skills as drivers of life outcomes for poor children. “Grit” and “hope” are among the more popular focal points in this research. This article argues terms like these are most useful when they are thought of as a part of a cluster of concepts related to the idea of alienation, in the sense of powerlessness. Framing the “new” concepts that way helps connect our thinking to a wider range of empirical work and helps identify important unresolved issues for future research. We also argue the most profitable approaches will be those which help us understand how individual characteristics interact with structural context, avoiding an exclusive emphasis on either individual characteristics or structural contexts.

An ounce of prevention is better than violence

Human Capital Children and adolescents spend a large fraction of their lives in schools. Many discussions about improving adult behavior focus on improving cognitive skills. Nevertheless, retrospective analyses also highlight the importance of noncognitive skills. Heller reports on the positive effects of a Chicago program that offered disadvantaged youths 25 hours per week of summer employment. Youths enrolled in this program committed fewer violent crimes for at least a year after the summer job ended. Science , this issue p. [1219][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1257809

Non-Cognitive Skills and Personality Traits: Labour Market Relevance and Their Development in Education & Training Systems

This paper reviews the empirical economic literature on the relative importance of non cognitive skills for school and labour market outcomes, with a focus on Europe. There is evidence that high cognitive test scores are likely to result not only from high cognitive skills but also from high motivation and adequate personality traits. This suggests that part of the contribution of cognitive skills to economic growth could be due to personality traits. Across large parts of the literature, there is consensus that non cognitive skills have important effects both on school attainment and on labour market outcomes. These effects might be as important as the effects of cognitive skills. Less consensus exists on the malleability of non cognitive skills, with some arguing that these skills can be altered until the end of teenage years and others claiming that emotional intelligence can be changed at any age. Most of what economists know about the technology of non cognitive skill formation concerns early educational levels, such as preschools and schools. While it is difficult to argue that all relevant skill formation ends before labour market entry, there is scant evidence on the role of the workplace in the maintenance and development of existing skills. Clearly, more research in this area is needed.

Do You Believe In Magic?: What We Can Expect From Early Childhood Intervention Programs

Do You Believe In Magic?: What We Can Expect From Early Childhood Intervention Programs

The Importance of Noncognitive Skills: Lessons from the GED Testing Program

The Importance of Noncognitive Skills: Lessons from the GED Testing Program by James J. Heckman and Yona Rubinstein. Published in volume 91, issue 2, pages 145-149 of American Economic Review, May 2001