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Achievement-related attitudes and the fate of "at-risk" groups in society

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  • O'Connell, Michael
  • Sheikh, Hammad

Abstract

What causes poverty and how does an individual escape it? Factors such as intelligence and social class background are thought to be important. However, a number of economists have argued that an individual's profile of achievement-related attitudes (ARAs) like work-orientation and conscientiousness might play a role in social success and failure. Part of their attraction is that these attitudes are regarded as responsive to nurturing and may be especially significant for those individuals with few formal skills to offer the labour market. The NCDS longitudinal dataset was interrogated to assess whether ARAs predicted an individual's earnings measured almost two decades later. Results indicated that ARAs explain a good deal of variance in earnings, particularly for "at-risk" males. Social policy implications are discussed.

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  • O'Connell, Michael & Sheikh, Hammad, 2008. "Achievement-related attitudes and the fate of "at-risk" groups in society," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 508-521, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:29:y:2008:i:4:p:508-521
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    1. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2009. "Entwicklung und Ungleichheit von Fähigkeiten: Anmerkungen aus ökonomischer Sicht," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-025, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human DEvelopment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 320-364, 04-05.
    3. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2013. "On the Power of Childhood Impressions for Skill Formation: Initial Evidence and Unsettled Questions," IZA Discussion Papers 7217, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Jonas Radl & Leire Salazar & Héctor Cebolla-Boado, 2017. "Does Living in a Fatherless Household Compromise Educational Success? A Comparative Study of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 217-242, May.

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