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on Neuroeconomics |
| By: | Anna Adamecz (UCL Social Research Institute; ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies); Hubert János Kiss (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies; Corvinus University of Budapest) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether adolescents’ core self-evaluation (CSE), a broad personality construct capturing individuals’ appraisal of their self-worth and capabilities, predicts interpersonal trust decades later. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we construct CSE measures from self-esteem, locus of control, and emotional stability at age 16 and examine their relationship with trust reported at ages 34, 42, 46, and 50. We find that higher adolescent CSE is consistently and positively associated with greater trust in others later in life. Each component of CSE independently predicts trust, and the composite index shows robust associations even after controlling for demographic background, cognitive skills, and early mental health. The estimated associations are comparable in magnitude to those between trust and cognitive ability. They are stable over time and are not explained by selection to the sample, educational attainment, labour market success, or family formation. Importantly, we find that the relative importance of CSE components varies by adolescent mental health: locus of control is more predictive among individuals with better mental health, while emotional stability plays a stronger role among those with elevated depressive symptoms. These findings underscore the long-term social relevance of core self-evaluation and highlight its importance as a psychological antecedent of trust. |
| Keywords: | Interpersonal trust; Core self-evaluation; Personality traits; Longitudinal analysis; 1970 British Cohort Study; Non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | D01 D91 J19 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:2513 |
| By: | Dickinson, David (Appalachian State University); Norwood, Jacob (Appalachian State University) |
| Abstract: | Food insecurity affects roughly 18 million people in the United States and 2.3 billion globally. Given its prevalence, this study aims to examine how food insecurity and resulting anxiety affect cognitive control and decision-making. Samples of n=102 food-insecure and n=102 food-secure individuals were recruited from the Prolific online subject pool to complete an incentivized Stroop Task and a Monetary Risk Taking task. Randomized treatment assignments administered either a High or Low Cognitive Load manipulation prior to decision making by prompting participants to consider a more or less expensive unexpected financial expense. While food insecurity did not impact cognitive control and risky choices as hypothesized, it may indirectly affect outcomes via anxiety. And, exploratory analysis of response times data suggest food insecurity may promote some increased risk taking due to less deliberative decision processing. The role of anxiety and its effect on choice process among the food-insecure likely merits further investigation. |
| Keywords: | food insecurity, cognitive load, anxiety, cognitive control, risky-choice |
| JEL: | D00 D91 I30 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18841 |
| By: | Adamecz, Anna (University College London and KRTK KTI); Jerrim, John (University College London); Szabó-Morvai, Ã gnes (KRTK KTI and University of Debrecen) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of dropping out of school in the association between adolescent mental health disorders (MHDs) and subsequent early-life outcomes. Utilising an administrative panel dataset that links education, health, and employment records for half of the Hungarian school population, we track the life outcomes of a school cohort until age 22. Our findings indicate that adolescents diagnosed with an MHD between the ages of 14 and 16 are 5.8 percentage points (or 34%) more likely to drop out of secondary school compared to their peers, even after controlling for social background factors and educational performance. Furthermore, MHDs are associated with poorer early-life outcomes by age 22, including reduced employment rates, an increased likelihood of being neither in education nor employment, lower wages, and higher probabilities of motherhood, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, and substance abuse. On average, approximately a third of these negative associations are mediated through school dropout but there are substantial differences across these outcomes. |
| Keywords: | adolescent mental health, school dropout, school-to-work transition, NEET, abortion, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, causal mediation analysis |
| JEL: | I12 I29 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18763 |
| By: | Bet Caeyers; Lina Cardona Sosa; Sarah Cattan; Sonya Krutikova; Abu Siddique |
| Abstract: | Preschool enrollment has expanded rapidly in low-income countries, but quality has lagged, and evidence on how governments can improve it remains limited. We evaluate Lively Minds, a scalable early childhood program adopted and implemented by Ghana’s Ministry of Education that trains community mothers to deliver structured, play-based activities in public preschools and support children’s learning at home. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial in 80 rural preschools, we find that the program increases cognitive development by 0.12 standard deviations and reduces problem behaviors by 0.10 SD on average. Cognitive gains are similar for children of participating and non-participating mothers, whereas behavioral improvements are concentrated among children of participating mothers. Consistent with this pattern, only participating mothers improve their knowledge of child development and engage in more developmentally supportive interactions with their children at home. These findings suggest that engaging parents — even those with limited formal education — can generate additional benefits beyond those of approaches that rely solely on teachers and paraprofessionals. A cost-benefit analysis indicates that the program’s private benefits substantially exceed its costs, with no adverse effects on mothers’ well-being. |
| Keywords: | early childhood development, preschool quality, parenting, scalability |
| JEL: | J13 I10 I20 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12910 |
| By: | Olga Kokshagina; Marc Santolini; Christoph Riedl |
| Abstract: | Why do some teams consistently mobilize collective effort and achieve superior performance while others struggle to coordinate action? We introduce Attention-Directing Ability (ADA), a latent team capability capturing how effectively members' interaction signals elicit engagement and coordinated responses from others. Extending the attention-based view, we conceptualize attention direction as an emergent coordination capability embedded in patterns of interaction rather than as a cognitive state or an outcome. Teams differ in the extent to which attention-directing signals trigger collective responses, and these differences shape how teams mobilize effort and perform. We examine ADA in a distributed innovation effort involving 2, 233 participants collaborating asynchronously in 79 self-organized teams across 165 public Slack channels, generating over 30, 000 messages. We model the causal responsiveness among interaction signals and derive a latent measure of ADA from teams' attention dynamics. We find that ADA strongly predicts both teams' likelihood of mobilizing engagement to sustain collective work and their performance conditional on participation. Correcting for self-selection into project submission, teams with higher ADA are more likely to submit proposals and achieve higher expert-evaluated outcomes. Causal mediation analyses show that these effects operate primarily through collective effort, indicating that attention direction functions as an upstream coordination capability. By conceptualizing attention as an emergent, measurable team capability, this study advances theories of collective attention and team coordination. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2607.26109 |
| By: | Duflo, Esther; Dupas, Pascaline; Spelke, Elizabeth; Walsh, Mark |
| Abstract: | We provide experimental evidence on the intergenerational impacts of secondary education subsidies in a low-income context, leveraging a randomized controlled trial and 15-year longitudinal follow-up. For young women, receiving a scholarship for secondary school delays childbearing and marriage, and reduces unwanted pregnancies. Female scholarship recipients are more likely to marry a partner with tertiary education and their children have better early childhood development outcomes. In particular, we document a 45% reduction in under-three mortality as well as cognitive development gains of 0.25 standard deviations of test scores once children are of school age. The primary mechanism seems to be that more-educated caregivers have the knowledge and skills to safeguard their children’s health and stimulate their cognitive development. In contrast, we find no evidence of a positive impact for the children of male scholarship recipients, who tend to marry less educated partners. Together, these results suggest a key role for maternal education in child outcomes. We also estimate the cost-benefit ratio for secondary school scholarships and find that the impact on child survival alone is sufficient to make them a highly cost-effective investment. |
| JEL: | J13 O15 I26 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19345 |
| By: | Kwan Soo Shin |
| Abstract: | National planning counts population, human capital, and artificial-intelligence preparedness in separate ledgers. Demographic accounting has advanced from headcount to skills-adjusted stocks and still debates how much age structure retains once skills are modeled, yet no existing unit carries the conditions under which preparedness becomes productive capacity. This study introduces the Effective Cognitive Population (ECP), a decomposable unit that weights population by capability and by the conditions under which capability is deployed, anchored to the World Bank Human Capital Index Plus (HCI+) and the non-overlapping dimensions of the IMF AI Preparedness Index. The architecture is portable in principle; the case tested here is artificial intelligence, which has a published preparedness index. For 144 countries, HCI+ becomes a productivity level, AI opportunity uses digital infrastructure and innovation integration, conversion governance uses regulation and ethics, and the benchmark is ECP = N H(1 + AC). Against 2024 total output on identical population bases, ECP raises criterion R-squared from 0.849 for the HCI+-adjusted stock to 0.882 and lowers leave-one-country-out RMSE from 0.723 to 0.641, with the working-age comparison identical and bootstrap intervals excluding zero. Eighty-nine of 144 countries move at least ten rank positions from headcount, mostly through the human-capital adjustment itself. Results are stable across denominators, vintages, aggregation forms, and a 27-rule multiverse. The direct A by C interaction is not statistically supported, so the conjunction is a planning rule rather than causal complementarity. ECP is a diagnostic ledger whose scope excludes forecasts of population decline and estimates of AI's causal productivity effect. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.09642 |