IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucd/wpaper/201019.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

In praise of ambidexterity: how a continuum of handedness predicts social adjustment

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Denny

    (School of Economics & Geary Institute, University College Dublin)

  • Wen Zhang

    (Department of Psychology, University of Cardiff)

Abstract

This paper estimates the relationship between handedness and social adjustment. In addition to binary measures of hand preference, we also use a continuous measure of hand skill. Outcomes at ages 7, 11 and 16 are studied. Using a semi-parametric estimator it is shown that non-right-handedness (as hand-preference) is associated with poorer social adjustment but this effect disappears as the individuals age. The continuous measure of hand skill has a non-monotonic effect on social adjustment with poorer social adjustment at the extreme values of the continuum. Poorer social adjustment in childhood has been shown to predict poorer socio-economic outcomes later in life.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Denny & Wen Zhang, 2010. "In praise of ambidexterity: how a continuum of handedness predicts social adjustment," Working Papers 201019, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ucd.ie/geary/static/publications/workingpapers/gearywp201019.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2010
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary Silles, 2010. "Personality, education and earnings," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 131-151.
    2. Kevin Denny & Vincent O’ Sullivan, 2007. "The Economic Consequences of Being Left-Handed: Some Sinister Results," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(2).
    3. Kevin Denny & Orla Doyle, 2010. "Returns to basic skills in central and eastern Europe," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 18(1), pages 183-208, January.
    4. Kevin Denny, 2008. "Cognitive ability and continuous measures of relative hand-skill. a note," Working Papers 200805, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    5. Paul Frijters & David W. Johnston & Manisha Shah & Michael A. Shields, 2009. "To Work or Not to Work? Child Development and Maternal Labor Supply," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(3), pages 97-110, July.
    6. repec:ucn:wpaper:10197/1132 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Johnston, David W. & Shah, Manisha & Shields, Michael A., 2007. "Handedness, Time Use and Early Childhood Development," IZA Discussion Papers 2752, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Kaye K. W. Lee, 2006. "Personality and Earnings," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_443, Levy Economics Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Paul Frijters & David Johnston & Manisha Shah & Michael Shields, 2013. "Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: Do Parents Reduce or Reinforce Child Ability Gaps?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 2187-2208, December.
    2. David W. Johnston & Michael E. R. Nicholls & Manisha Shah & Michael A. Shields, 2013. "Handedness, health and cognitive development: evidence from children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 176(4), pages 841-860, October.
    3. Paul Frijters & David W. Johnston & Manisha Shah & Michael A. Shields, 2008. "Early Child Development and Maternal Labor Force Participation: Using Handedness as an Instrument," NCER Working Paper Series 27, National Centre for Econometric Research.
    4. Thomas Buser, 2010. "Handedness predicts Social Preferences: Evidence connecting the Lab to the Field," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-119/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. David Johnston & Michael Nicholls & Manisha Shah & Michael Shields, 2009. "Nature’s experiment? Handedness and early childhood development," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(2), pages 281-301, May.
    6. Marcello Sartarelli, 2016. "Handedness, Earnings, Ability and Personality. Evidence from the Lab," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, October.
    7. Marcello Sartarelli, 2016. "Handedness, Ability, Earnings and Risk. Evidence from the Lab," Working Papers. Serie AD 2016-04, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    8. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2017. "When the opportunity knocks: large structural shocks and gender wage gaps," GRAPE Working Papers 2, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    9. Mendolia, Silvia & Walker, Ian, 2014. "The effect of personality traits on subject choice and performance in high school: Evidence from an English cohort," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 47-65.
    10. Kevin Denny, 2008. "Handedness and Depression - Evidence from a Large Population Survey," Working Papers 200814, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    11. Dennis Coates, 2017. "Returns to Handedness in Professional Hockey," Sports Economics, Management, and Policy, in: Bernd Frick (ed.), Breaking the Ice, pages 41-56, Springer.
    12. Daniel Kuehnle, 2013. "The causal effect of family income on child health: A re-examination using an instrumental variables approach," Working Papers 133, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    13. Joshua Goodman, 2014. "The Wages of Sinistrality: Handedness, Brain Structure, and Human Capital Accumulation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 193-212, Fall.
    14. Porto Natalia & Carella Laura & Rucci Ana Clara & Velazquez Cecilia, 2023. "Children living with disabilities and mother`s labor supply in developing countries: evidence from Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4686, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    15. Eriksen, Tine L. Mundbjerg & Gaulke, Amanda & Skipper, Niels & Svensson, Jannet, 2021. "The impact of childhood health shocks on parental labor supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Huong Thu Le & Ha Trong Nguyen, 2017. "Parental health and children's cognitive and noncognitive development: New evidence from the longitudinal survey of Australian children," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1767-1788, December.
    17. Sciulli, Dario, 2016. "Adult employment probabilities of socially maladjusted children," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 9-22.
    18. Aline Branche-Seigeot, 2013. "La valorisation des compétences de base sur le marché du travail français," Post-Print halshs-00794385, HAL.
    19. Cho, Seungyeon, 2021. "Is handedness exogenously determined? Counterevidence from South Korea," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    20. Alex Bryson & Bernd Frick & Rob Simmons, 2009. "The Returns to Scarce Talent: Footedness and Player Remuneration in European Soccer," CEP Discussion Papers dp0948, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    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:ucd:wpaper:201019. 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: Geary Tech (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/geucdie.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.