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on Neuroeconomics |
| By: | Ludger Woessmann (LMU Munich and ifo Institute Munich) |
| Abstract: | The multitude of tasks performed in the labor market requires skills in many dimensions. Traditionally, human capital has been proxied primarily by educational attainment. However, an expanding body of literature highlights the importance of various skill dimensions for success in the labor market. This paper examines the returns to cognitive, personality, and social skills as three important dimensions of basic skills. Recent advances in text analysis of online job postings and professional networking platforms offer novel methods for assessing a wider range of applied skill dimensions and their labor market relevance. A synthesis and integration of the evidence on the relationship between multidimensional skills and earnings, including the matching of skill supply and demand, will enhance our understanding of the role of human capital in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | skills; human capital; education; labor market; earnings; tasks; cognitive skills; personality; social skills; multidimensional skills; |
| JEL: | J24 I26 |
| Date: | 2024–10–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:514 |
| By: | Coupland, Stephen John Mr |
| Abstract: | The Cognitive Gradient Innovation Index (CGII) introduces a novel, interdisciplinary framework to measure and optimize innovation potential across a nine-level cognitive gradient. Unlike existing models, CGII integrates neurodiversity, whole-brain functionality, and modern psychological insights to create a comprehensive tool for assessing individual and systemic innovation capacity. By analyzing the contributions of neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals, and incorporating left-right brain dynamics alongside IQ, EQ, and personality traits, CGII addresses societal and organizational imbalances in innovation. It provides actionable pathways to bridge cognitive gaps, ensuring inclusive and sustainable progress. The CGII offers governments, organizations, and researchers a groundbreaking method for unlocking untapped human potential and fostering systemic transformation. |
| Date: | 2024–12–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:2u3e5 |
| By: | Leonard Wantchekon; Sally Zhang |
| Abstract: | Despite the widespread economic shocks faced by children in developing countries, the factors that contribute to resilience remain poorly understood. In this paper, we present three novel facts on the development of noncognitive skills using a longitudinal dataset from Ethiopia. First, we observe a weak correlation between parental wealth and noncognitive skills. Second, we find that while adverse weather shock cause a slight decline in cognitive test scores, they boost noncognitive skills, including generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, and internal locus of control. Lastly, we show that past exposure to adverse weather shocks is correlated with better mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We rationalize these surprising findings within a model of cognitive and noncognitive skill development, where child agency serves a key role. In this model, when a child chooses to exert effort during a particular period, they not only increase their immediate consumption, but it also enhances their noncognitive skills through “learning by doing.” Incorporation of child agency in human capital development result in model predictions that are consistent with the empirical results, and highlights the policy relevance of improving child agency. |
| JEL: | I25 I3 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33305 |
| By: | Christian Belzil (CREST, CNRS, Paris Polytechnic Institute, IZA, CIRANO); Tomáš Jagelka (University of Bonn, Dartmouth College, CREST-Ensae, IZA) |
| Abstract: | We develop a micro-founded framework for accounting for individuals' effort and cognitive noise which confound estimates of preferences based on observed behavior. Using a large-scale experimental dataset we estimate that failure to properly account for decision errors due to (rational) inattention on a more complex, but commonly used, task design biases estimates of risk aversion by 50% for the median individual. Effort propensities recovered from preference elicitation tasks generalize to other settings and predict performance on an OECD-sponsored achievement test used to make international comparisons. Furthermore, accounting for endogenous effort allows us to empirically reconcile competing models of discrete choice. |
| Keywords: | Preferences, risk preference, stochastic choice models, endogenous effort, cognitive noise, task complexity, experimental design |
| JEL: | D91 C40 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:350 |
| By: | Jean-Sébastien Lenfant (PRISM, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to provide a historical account of the contributions to judgment and decision making by four cognitive psychologists at the turn of the 1970s: Sarah Lichtenstein, Paul Slovic, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Beyond the usual focus on Kahneman and Tversky's heuristics and biases approach, we uphold that historians of behavioral economics would gain from a broader and more balanced view of the contributions of these four psychologists to the theory of decision making. Together with the heuristics and biases approach, experiments on preference reversal and choice intransitivities represent a multifaceted criticism of standard theories of choice and decision against which the genesis of behavioral economics could be evaluated. |
| Keywords: | Lichtenstein (Sarah), Slovic (Paul), Tversky (Amos), Kahneman (Daniel), heuristics and biases, preference reversal, intransitivity, preferences, behavioral economics, conjoint measurement, judgment, expected utility theory, mathematical psychology, cognitivism, experiments |
| JEL: | B21 B29 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-31 |