IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ipt/laedte/202106.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Returns to Non-Cognitive Skills: A Meta-Analysis

Author

Listed:

Abstract

This paper discusses the returns to non-cognitive skills based on results of a meta-analysis. The systematic literature review of articles published in the last decade and analysing labour market outcomes and non-cognitive skills allowed us to extract more than 300 estimates linking earnings and non-cognitive skills, most often measured by the Big Five inventory. The results of meta-analysis point to heterogeneity in the estimated signs and significance of a particular non-cognitive skill. We observe that conscientiousness and openness are two personality traits that bring higher earnings, while agreeableness and neuroticism (low emotional stability) are associated with receiving lower earnings. Some gender differences are also observed. Older and female participants seemed to benefit more from programmes targeted at developing non-cognitive skills than younger participants and men. However, there is a positive selection of female participants to enrol to programmes with better prospects (e.g. longer in duration).

Suggested Citation

  • Sofie Cabus & Joanna Napierala & Stephanie Carretero, 2021. "The Returns to Non-Cognitive Skills: A Meta-Analysis," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2021-06, Joint Research Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:ipt:laedte:202106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123308
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lex Borghans & Angela Lee Duckworth & James J. Heckman & Bas ter Weel, 2008. "The Economics and Psychology of Personality Traits," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    2. Matthias Collischon, 2020. "The Returns to Personality Traits Across the Wage Distribution," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(1), pages 48-79, March.
    3. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman & Susanne M. Schennach, 2010. "Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(3), pages 883-931, May.
    4. James J. Heckman & Jora Stixrud & Sergio Urzua, 2006. "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 411-482, July.
    5. Thomas J. Steichen, 2001. "Nonparametric trim and fill analysis of publication bias in meta-analysis," Stata Technical Bulletin, StataCorp LP, vol. 10(57).
    6. Gertler, Paul & Heckman, James & Pinto, Rodrigo & Zanolini, Arianna & Vermeerch, Christel & Walker, Susan & Chang, Susan M. & Grantham-McGregor, Sally, 2013. "Labor Market Returns to Early Childhood Stimulation: A 20-year Followup to an Experimental Intervention in Jamaica," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt8sz5p9vd, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    7. Heineck, Guido & Anger, Silke, 2010. "The returns to cognitive abilities and personality traits in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 535-546, June.
    8. Thomas J. Steichen, 2001. "Nonparametric trim and fill analysis of publication bias in meta-analysis: erratum," Stata Technical Bulletin, StataCorp LP, vol. 10(58).
    9. Robert Girtz, 2012. "The Effects of Personality Traits on Wages: A Matching Approach," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 26(4), pages 455-471, December.
    10. Christopher Blattman & Nathan Fiala & Sebastian Martinez, 2014. "Generating Skilled Self-Employment in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Uganda," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 697-752.
    11. Stijn Broecke, 2015. "Experience and the returns to education and skill in OECD countries: Evidence of employer learning?," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2015(1), pages 123-147.
    12. Lex Borghans & Bas Ter Weel & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2014. "People Skills and the Labor-Market Outcomes of Underrepresented Groups," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 287-334, April.
    13. Acosta, Pablo A. & Muller, Noel & Sarzosa, Miguel, 2015. "Beyond Qualifications: Returns to Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills in Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 9403, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2014:i:2:p:697-752. is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Silke Anger & Guido Heineck, 2006. "Cognitive Abilities and Labour Market Outcomes," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 655, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria Cinque & Stephanie Carretero & Joanna Napierala, 2021. "Non-cognitive skills and other related concepts: towards a better understanding of similarities and differences," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2021-09, Joint Research Centre.
    2. Dickson, Matt & Donnelly, Michael & Kameshwara, Kalyan Kumar & Lazetic, Predrag, 2024. "The Scarring Effect of Graduate Underemployment: Evidence from the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 17364, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole, 2024. "What is the price of a skill? The value of complementarity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter A. Savelyev & Kegon T. K. Tan, 2019. "Socioemotional Skills, Education, and Health-Related Outcomes of High-Ability Individuals," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 5(2), pages 250-280, Spring.
    2. Humburg, M., 2014. "Personality and field of study choice," ROA Research Memorandum 001, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    3. Shoji, Masahiro, 2020. "Early-Life Circumstances and Adult Locus of Control: Evidence from 46 Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 99987, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Engelhardt, Carina, 2017. "Unemployment and personality: Are conscientiousness and agreeableness related to employability?," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-621, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    5. Martin Schlotter, 2011. "Age at Preschool Entrance and Noncognitive Skills before School - An Instrumental Variable Approach," ifo Working Paper Series 112, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    6. Gensowski, Miriam, 2018. "Personality, IQ, and lifetime earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 170-183.
    7. Kautz, Tim & Heckman, James J. & Diris, Ron & ter Weel, Bas & Borghans, Lex, 2014. "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success," IZA Discussion Papers 8696, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Gavoille, Nicolas & Hazans, Mihails, 2022. "Personality Traits, Remote Work and Productivity," IZA Discussion Papers 15486, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. James Heckman & Tim Kautz, 2013. "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Interventions That Improve Character and Cognition," Working Papers 2013-019, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    10. Dohmen, Thomas, 2014. "Behavioral labor economics: Advances and future directions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 71-85.
    11. Eckhardt Bode & Stephan Brunow & Ingrid Ott & Alina Sorgner, 2019. "Worker Personality: Another Skill Bias beyond Education in the Digital Age," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 254-294, November.
    12. Thiel, Hendrik & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2013. "Noncognitive skills in economics: Models, measurement, and empirical evidence," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 189-214.
    13. Björn Nilsson, 2019. "The School-to-Work Transition in Developing Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(5), pages 745-764, May.
    14. Bühler, Dorothee & Sharma, Rasadhika & Stein, Wiebke, 2020. "Occupational Attainment and Earnings in Southeast Asia: The Role of Non-cognitive Skills," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    15. Fletcher, Jason M., 2013. "The effects of personality traits on adult labor market outcomes: Evidence from siblings," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 122-135.
    16. Hilger, Anne & Nordman, Christophe Jalil & Sarr, Leopold, 2018. "Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills, Hiring Channels, and Wages in Bangladesh," IZA Discussion Papers 11578, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Melchior Vella, 2024. "The relationship between the Big Five personality traits and earnings: Evidence from a meta‐analysis," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(3), pages 685-712, July.
    18. Del Bono, Emilia & Etheridge, Ben & Garcia, Paul, 2024. "The economic value of childhood socio-emotional skills," ISER Working Paper Series 2024-01, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    19. Martin Humburg, 2017. "Personality and field of study choice in university," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 366-378, July.
    20. Justine Herve & Helene Purcell & Subha Mani, 2023. "Conscientiousness Matters: How does Personality affect Labor Market Outcomes?," Fordham Economics Discussion Paper Series dp2023-05er:dp2023-05, Fordham University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Big Five; Meta-analysis; Non-cognitive skills; earnings; Programme effectiveness; Returns;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ipt:laedte:202106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Publication Officer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipjrces.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.