Non-cognitive Abilities Research Articles

The impact of a study abroad programme on learning abilities and personality traits: evidence from a randomization

ABSTRACTPersonality traits are increasingly considered as a powerful predictor of socio-economic success as academic achievement. In this article, we exploit the random assignment of applicants to a programme in order to retrieve unbiased estimates of the impact of studying abroad on both cognitive and noncognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that secondary school students, especially those considered ‘more able’, benefited from a 1-month experience abroad, as it enhanced both personality traits and language proficiency.

Born to Lead? The Effect of Birth Order on Noncognitive Abilities

We study the effect of birth order on personality traits among men using population data on enlistment records and occupations for Sweden. We find that earlier born men are more persistent, socially outgoing, willing to assume responsibility, and able to take initiative than later-borns. In addition, we find that birth order affects occupational sorting; first-born children are more likely to be managers, while later-born children are more likely to be self-employed. We also find that earlier born children are more likely to be in occupations that require leadership ability, social ability and the Big Five personality traits. Finally, we find a significant role of sex composition within the family. Later-born boys suffer an additional penalty the larger the share of boys among the older siblings. When we investigate possible mechanisms, we find that the negative effects of birth order are driven by post-natal environmental factors. We also find evidence of lower parental human capital investments in later-born children.

Associations of parental age with health and social factors in adult offspring. Methodological pitfalls and possibilities

Parental age is increasing rapidly in many countries. Analysis of this potentially important influence on offspring well-being is hampered by strong secular trends and socioeconomic patterning and by a shortage of follow-up data for adult offspring. We used Swedish national data on up to 3,653,938 offspring to consider the associations of parental age with a suite of outcomes in adult offspring, comparing the results from an array of statistical methods for optimal causal inference. The offspring of older mothers had higher BMI, blood pressure, height, intelligence, non-cognitive ability and socioeconomic position. They were less likely to smoke or to be left-handed. Associations with paternal age were strongly, but not completely, attenuated by adjustment for maternal age. Estimates from the commonly-used sibling comparison method were driven primarily by a pathway mediated by offspring date of birth when outcomes showed strong secular trends. These results suggest that the intra-uterine and early life environments provided by older mothers may be detrimental to offspring cardiovascular health, but that their greater life experience and social position may bring intellectual and social advantages to their offspring. The analysis of parental age presents particular challenges, and further methodological developments are needed.

Does Living in a Fatherless Household Compromise Educational Success? A Comparative Study of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills

This study addresses the relationship between various family forms and the level of cognitive and non-cognitive skills among 15- to 16-year-old students. We measure cognitive skills using standardized scores in mathematics; non-cognitive abilities are captured by a composite measure of internal locus of control related to mathematics. A particular focus lies on father absence although we also examine the role played by co-residence with siblings and grandparents. We use cross-nationally comparable data on students participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment’s release for 2012. By mapping inequalities by family forms across 33 developed countries, this study provides robust cross-country comparable evidence on the relationship of household structure with both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The study produces three key results: first, the absence of fathers from the household as well as co-residence with grandparents is associated with adverse outcomes for children in virtually all developed countries. Second, this is generally true in terms of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, although the disadvantage connected to both family forms is notably stronger in the former than in the latter domain. Finally, there is marked cross-national diversity in the effects associated with the presence in the household of siblings and especially grandparents which furthermore differs across the two outcomes considered.

The role of confidence and noncognitive skills for post-baccalaureate academic and labor market outcomes

Increasingly researchers include information about noncognitive abilities in their analyses of similar people’s educational choices and subsequent labor market outcomes. We contribute to this literature by considering the dual roles of confidence in one’s abilities and noncognitive skills and characteristics in predicting several subsequent MBA program and employment outcomes among a sample of GMAT test takers, with a focus on identifying possible gender differences in these relationships. Self-reported noncognitive skills correlate similarly for men’s and women’s managerial, earnings and employment satisfaction outcomes. In contrast, though, distinct gender differences emerge regarding perceptions of one’s mathematical and verbal ability—with confidence in quantitative ability especially associated with men’s and confidence in verbal ability mainly associated with women’s outcomes. Non-linearity analysis reveals that lower earnings are correlated with men who have low confidence in their quantitative ability and with women who have high confidence in their verbal ability.

Human Capital and Reemployment Success: The Role of Cognitive Abilities and Personality.

Involuntary periods of unemployment represent major negative experiences for many individuals. Therefore, it is important to identify factors determining the speed job seekers are able to find new employment. The present study focused on cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of job seekers that determine their reemployment success. A sample of German adults (N = 1366) reported on their employment histories over the course of six years and provided measures on their fluid and crystallized intelligence, mathematical and reading competence, and the Big Five of personality. Proportional hazard regression analyses modeled the conditional probability of finding a new job at a given time dependent on the cognitive and personality scores. The results showed that fluid and crystallized intelligence as well as reading competence increased the probability of reemployment. Moreover, emotionally stable job seekers had higher odds of finding new employment. Other personality traits of the Big Five were less relevant for reemployment success. Finally, crystallized intelligence and emotional stability exhibited unique predictive power after controlling for the other traits and showed incremental effects with regard to age, education, and job type. These findings highlight that stable individual differences have a systematic, albeit rather small, effect on unemployment durations.

The Role of Confidence and Noncognitive Skills for Post-Baccalaureate Academic and Labor Market Outcomes

Increasingly researchers include information about noncognitive abilities in their analyses of similar people's educational choices and subsequent labor market outcomes. We contribute to this literature by considering the dual roles of confidence in one’s abilities and noncognitive skills and characteristics in predicting several subsequent MBA program and employment outcomes among a sample of GMAT test takers, with a focus on identifying possible gender differences in these relationships. Self-reported noncognitive skills correlate similarly for men’s and women’s managerial, earnings and employment satisfaction outcomes. In contrast, though, distinct gender differences emerge regarding perceptions of one's mathematical and verbal ability — with confidence in quantitative ability especially associated with men’s and confidence in verbal ability mainly associated with women’s outcomes. Non-linearity analysis reveals that lower earnings are correlated with men who have low confidence in their quantitative ability and with women who have high confidence in their verbal ability.

Children\u2019s Development and Parental Input: Evidence From the UK Millennium Cohort Study

In this study, we use the UK Millennium Cohort Study to estimate a dynamic factor model of child development. Our model follows the children from birth until 7 years of age and allows for both cognitive and noncognitive abilities in children. We find a significant self-productivity effect in both cognitive and noncognitive development, as well as some evidence of dynamic dependence across different abilities. The activities that parents carry out with children at home (parental investment) have a significant effect on children’s development; we find substantial evidence of two distinct latent parental investment variables with differential effects across the two abilities.

How Do Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities Influence Stock Market Participation?

[enter Abstract Body]We study how cognitive and non-cognitive abilities influence stock market participation and what distinguishes investors from non-investors. Combining five datasets enables to observe the effect of mental abilities in the finest detail. We find that economic activity and occupation as well as religion and other characteristics influence stock market participation. More intelligent investors have a higher probability to participate in the stock market but the effect is clearly smaller for women than for men. We conclude that stock market investors tend to be more ambitious, prone to risk and also more intelligent, but less restricted in their nature.

Inequality in human capital and endogenous credit constraints

This paper investigates the determinants of inequality in human capital with an emphasis on the role of the credit constraints. We develop and estimate a model in which individuals face uninsured human capital risks and invest in education, acquire work experience, accumulate assets, and smooth consumption. Agents can borrow from the private lending market and from government student loan programs. The private market credit limit is explicitly derived by extending the natural borrowing limit of Aiyagari (1994) to incorporate endogenous labor supply, human capital accumulation, psychic costs of working, and age. We quantify the effects of cognitive ability, noncognitive ability, parental education, and parental wealth on educational attainment, wages, and consumption. We conduct counterfactual experiments with respect to tuition subsidies and enhanced student loan limits and evaluate their effects on educational attainment and inequality. We compare the performance of our model with that of an influential ad hoc model in the literature with education-specific fixed loan limits. We find evidence of substantial life cycle credit constraints that affect human capital accumulation and inequality. The constrained fall into two groups: those who are permanently poor over their lifetimes and a group of well-endowed individuals with rising high levels of acquired skills who are constrained early in their life cycles. Equalizing cognitive and noncognitive ability has dramatic effects on inequality. Equalizing parental backgrounds has much weaker effects. Tuition costs have weak effects on inequality.

Effect of cognitive abilities and non-cognitive abilities on labor wages: empirical evidence from the Chinese Employer-Employee Survey

ABSTRACTThe existing literature suggests that worker’s cognitive and non-cognitive abilities have a significant impact on wages. However, presently there is little research in this area of ​​China’s labor force, due to scanty data. To this end, this Paper conducted a CEES-based data research, which found that, the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of male, skilled workers have a greater impact on their wages, as compared with those of the female, unskilled workers. The OLS regression based on the Mincer Wage Equation found that, the impact of non-cognitive abilities on wages is generally larger than that of the cognitive abilities. All cognitive abilities have a positive impact on wages, wherein English proficiency has the greatest elasticity of wages, which is 12.1%. Of all non-cognitive abilities, Conscientiousness has the highest wage elasticity, which is 13.6%, whereas Agreeableness has a negative wage elasticity of −6.32%.Abbreviations: CEES: Chinese Employer-Employee Survey OLS: Ordinary least squares

Introduction to the special issue on firm performance and worker heterogeneity using Chinese Employer-Employee Survey (CEES) dataset

ABSTRACTThe Chinese Employer-Employee Survey (CEES) is the first dataset that links firm performance with worker heterogeneity in China, and therefore is a precious data resource for various research topics. This note introduces the CEES dataset, as well as seven papers that serve as the initial step in applying the CEES dataset. The topics covered include interaction between firm-level behavior and worker-level features, for example, firm innovation, quality upgrading, government intervention, worker’s cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, and labor protection. The ample information documented by CEES dataset is worth exploring in the future research agenda.

The Distribution of Lifetime Earnings Returns to College

I use Swedish registry data to estimate lifetime earnings returns to college and how they vary with observed and unobserved characteristics. The richness of the data also allows me to examine heterogeneity with respect to cognitive and noncognitive ability and parental earnings. Local instrumental variable analysis is used to recover marginal and average treatment effects under selection on gains. The findings support the notion of self-selection, but mainly on observed characteristics. Returns vary little with parental earnings but substantially with respect to both cognitive and noncognitive ability, thus suggesting important complementarities between formal schooling and informal skills.

Born to Lead? The Effect of Birth Order on Non-Cognitive Abilities

Born to Lead? The Effect of Birth Order on Non-Cognitive Abilities

<em>Non-cognitive Ability, College Learning, and Student Retention</em>

<em>Non-cognitive Ability, College Learning, and Student Retention</em>

Inequality in Human Capital and Endogenous Credit Constraints

This paper studies the determinants of inequality in human capital with particular emphasis on the role of the credit constraints. We develop and estimate a model in which individuals are subject to uninsured human capital risks and invest in education, acquire work experience, accumulate assets, and smooth consumption. Agents can borrow up to a model-determined limit, which we explicitly derive from a private lending market natural borrowing limit and government student loan programs. We also quantify the effects of cognitive ability, noncognitive ability, parental education, and parental wealth on educational attainment, work experience, and consumption. We conduct counterfactual experiments with respect to tuition subsidy and enhanced student loan limits and evaluate their effects on educational attainment and inequality.

Alcohol Availability, Prenatal Conditions, and Long-Term Economic Outcomes

This study examines how a policy that sharply increased alcohol availability during 8.5 months affected the labor productivity of those exposed to it in utero. Compared to the surrounding cohorts, the prenatally exposed children have substantially worse labor market and educational outcomes and lower cognitive and noncognitive ability. Effects on earnings are found throughout the distribution but are largest below the median. Males are more affected than females, consistent with growing evidence that boys are less resilient to early environmental insults. The long-term effects seem primarily driven by changes in prenatal health rather than changes in the childhood environment.

Short-Term Impacts of a Cash Transfer Program for Girls’ Education on Academic Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Malawian Secondary Schools

I.IntroductionEducation has been considered as one of the most important determinants of human capital development. Improved education measured by test scores is correlated with increased wages later in life at the micro-level (Blau, and Kahn 2005) and is argued to facilitate the economic growth of a country at the macro-level (Hanushek, and Woessmann 2012). Recent studies emphasize the importance of noncognitive abilities as the underlying mechanisms connecting educational interventions to test scores and later to adulthood outcomes (Glewwe et al. 2013; Wydick et al. 2013). This study contributes to literature by providing a unified evaluation of several academic outcomes and determining educational intervention's effect on a number of intermediate outcome variables (such as non-cognitive skills) that could be potential mechanisms explaining outcomes during adulthood. The ideal way to identify possible underlying mechanism of educational interventions for outcomes in adulthood is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) targeted towards experimentally changing each potential mechanism separately. While the present study was not designed to do this, it is nevertheless important to capture and describe the impact of the educational intervention on these potential mechanisms in the short run.The paper uses experimental data from the cash transfer program for girls' education in Malawi. In 2012, 124 classrooms of grades 9th, 10th, and 11th across 33 public secondary schools in Lilongwe rural areas participated in the cash transfer program and 62 classrooms are randomly selected as the treatment group while the remaining 62 classrooms served as the control. All female students in treatment classrooms received a year of tuition fee assistance directly deposited to the school account, as well as monthly stipends distributed to students. The experimental design evaluates the causal effects of the cash transfer program on schooling outcomes (dropout and absence), test scores, and non-cognitive abilities.In terms of schooling outcomes, dropout rates (both self- and schoolreported) declined. The impact of the program on dropout rates is significant and stronger among 9th grade (starting grade of a secondary school) students, whereas they are insignificant in 10th and 11th grade students. The probability of remaining at the original school in the treatment group (considering both dropouts and transfer students) increased by 6.7 percentage points (63.8%). School absence also diminished among treated students on average by five days per year. For the Junior Certificate Exam (JCE), a national exam at the end of 10* grade in secondary school, the cash transfer program increased the probability of baseline ninth grade students in the treatment group to take the JCE by 15.5 percentage points (24.8%). The probability to pass JCE also rose by 18.7 percentage points (36.7%) and overall exam scores improved by 0.241 standard deviations. However, the effects of the program on the Malawi School Certificate Exam (MSCE), another national exam that secondary school students take at the end of 12* grade, are minimal and statistically insignificant. For non-cognitive abilities, treated students take education more seriously, with higher aspirations for educational achievement.The paper is organized as follows. Section II briefly reviews related literature on the education support program. Section III presents the experimental design and addresses potential biases to the validity of the experiment. In Section IV, the empirical strategy based on simple OLS models is presented, followed by the results and analysis on schooling outcomes, test scores, and non-cognitive abilities in Section V. Finally, Sections VI concludes the paper.II.Brief Literature Review on Education Support ProgramsThis section provides a brief overview of the related literature, limiting the scope to only financial incentives for students from field experiments. …

The Intergenerational Transmission of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities

We study the intergenerational transmission of cognitive and noncognitive abilities using population data and correct for measurement error in abilities using two sets of instruments. The results show that previous estimates are biased downward and that once measurement error is corrected for, the correlation in noncognitive ability is close to that of cognitive ability. By considering both parents, intergenerational ability correlations account for a substantial portion of the sibling correlation. Using adoptees, we find that the social impact of maternal abilities is more important than paternal abilities. Children's educational attainment and labor market outcomes are strongly related to parents' cognitive and noncognitive abilities.

Human Capital and Leadership: The Impact of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities

We conduct an economic analysis about the impact of human capital on an individual’s potential of becoming a leader. The data come from the recent Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey (PIAAC). Our human capital indicators include not only traditional measures such as education and experience, but also various measures of cognitive and noncognitive ability. We specifically investigate the effect of imperfect ability measurement and possible reverse causality on the estimation results. We find that, among various cognitive and noncognitive ability measures, problem-solving ability and perseverance are the most important in affecting an individual’s leadership.