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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2016‒12‒11
three papers chosen by |
| By: | John Eric Humphries; Fabian Kosse |
| Abstract: | Across academic sub-fields such as labor, education, and behavioral economics, the measurement and interpretation of non-cognitive skills varies widely. As a result, it is difficult to compare results on the importance of non-cognitive skills across literatures. Drawing from these literatures, this paper systematically relates various prototypical non-cognitive measures within one data set. Specifically, we estimate and compare several different strategies for measuring non-cognitive skills. For each, we compare their relative effectiveness at predicting educational success and decompose what is being measured into underlying personality traits and economic preferences. We demonstrate that the construction of the non-cognitive factor greatly influences what is actually measured and what conclusions are reached about the role of non-cognitive skills in life outcomes such as educational attainment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, while sometimes difficult to interpret, factors extracted from self-reported behaviors can have predictive power similar to well established taxonomies, such as the Big Five. |
| Keywords: | non-cognitive skills, personality, preferences, educational success |
| JEL: | J24 I20 D03 D90 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp876&r=neu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | There is a growing literature providing evidence that not only cognitive skills but also non-cognitive skills are important for economic and social outcomes. This paper assesses the measurement properties of the Big Five and Grit scales in a large representative sample of adults in Poland. The data from the Polish Follow-up Study on the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (postPIAAC) include longitudinal information on PIAAC respondents in Poland and additional background information not available in the international study. The results presented in this paper show that not all the criteria concerning the reliability, validity and comparability of these scales have been satisfied, though the personality measures significantly contribute to explaining the variability in policy-relevant outcomes. Most of the questions discriminate well between people possessing a high and a low level of a given trait, though reverse-worded items perform weaker. The Big Five theoretical five-factor structure was not replicated; however, a six-factor model with an additional factor loading reverse-worded items fits the data. In case of Grit, a bi-factor model, which has an equivalent interpretation to the second-order theoretical structure, holds. The scales are not fully measurement invariant. The results confirm earlier findings from the literature that differences in personality traits are clearly associated with differences in life outcomes. For most of the outcomes, the Big Five traits outperform cognitive skills in predictive power. Only educational attainment is more strongly related to cognitive skills, while for wages, the predictive power of personality and cognitive skills is similar. The paper provides recommendations for incorporating measures of personality traits into competence surveys. |
| Date: | 2016–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:149-en&r=neu |
| By: | Alexander W. Cappelen; John A. List; Anya Samek; Bertil Tungodden |
| Abstract: | We present results from the first study to examine the causal impact of early childhood education on social preferences of children. We compare children who, at 3-4 years old, were randomized into either a full-time preschool, a parenting program with incentives, or to a control group. We returned to the same children when they reached 7-8 years old and conducted a series of incentivized experiments to elicit their social preferences. We find that early childhood education has a strong causal impact on social preferences several years after the intervention: attending preschool makes children more egalitarian in their fairness view and the parenting program enhances the importance children place on efficiency relative to fairness. Our findings highlight the importance of taking a broad perspective when designing and evaluating early childhood educational programs, and provide evidence of how differences in institutional exposure may contribute to explaining heterogeneity in social preferences in society. |
| JEL: | C9 C93 D01 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22898&r=neu |