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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2014‒12‒29
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Tim Kautz; James J. Heckman; Ron Diris; Bas ter Weel; Lex Borghans |
| Abstract: | IQ tests and achievement tests do not capture non-cognitive skills — personality traits, goals, character and motivations that are valued in the labour market, in school and elsewhere. For many outcomes, their predictive power rivals or exceeds that of cognitive skills. Skills are stable across situations with different incentives. Skills are not immutable over the life cycle. While they have a genetic basis they are also shaped by environments, including families, schools and peers. Skill development is a dynamic process. The early years are important in shaping all skills and in laying the foundations for successful investment and intervention in the later years. During the early years, both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are highly malleable. During the adolescent years, non-cognitive skills are more malleable than cognitive skills. The differential plasticity of different skills by age has important implications for the design of effective policies.<P> This paper reviews a variety of interventions across different stages of the life cycle. We interpret these studies using an economic model of skill development. Many effective programs work because they foster non-cognitive skills. Some have annual rates of return that are comparable to those from investments in the stock market. Parental involvement is an important component of successful early interventions just as successful adolescent mentoring is an age-appropriate version of parental involvement. Building an early base of skills that promote later-life learning and engagement in school and society is often a better strategy than waiting for problems to occur. |
| Keywords: | technology of skill formation, skills beget skills, early childhood investment, mentoring, non-cognitive skills, character, personality |
| Date: | 2014–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:110-en&r=neu |
| By: | del Bono, Emilia; Francesconi, Marco |
| Abstract: | Using large longitudinal survey data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, this paper estimates the eect of maternal time inputs on early child development. We nd that maternal time is a quantitatively important determinant of skill formation and that its eect declines with child age. There is evidence of a long shadow of the eect of early maternal time inputs on later outcomes, especially in the case of cognitive skill development. In the case of non-cognitive development, this eect disappears when we account for skill persistence. |
| Keywords: | cognitive and non- cognitive skill formation; early interventions; education production functions |
| JEL: | I20 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10231&r=neu |
| By: | Bosman, Ronald; Kräussl, Roman; van Galen, Thomas |
| Abstract: | This paper experimentally investigates how emotions are associated with option prices and risk perception. Using a binary lottery, we find evidence that the emotion 'surprise' plays a significant role in the negative correlation between lottery returns and estimates of the price of a put option. Our findings shed new light on various existing theories on emotions and affect. We find gratitude, admiration, and joy to be positively associated with risk perception, although the affect heuristic predicts a negative association. In contrast with the predictions of the appraisal tendency framework (ATF), we document a negative correlation between option price and surprise for lottery winners. Finally, the results show that the option price is not associated with risk perception as commonly used in psychology. |
| Keywords: | risk perception,emotions,affect heuristic,option prices,experiment |
| JEL: | D81 D03 G17 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cfswop:495&r=neu |
| By: | Kramer, A.E. (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management) |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:60d339aa-ed1b-42a0-b9ad-265fcd458af6&r=neu |