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Title: The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Heckman, James J.
Stixrud, Jora
Urzua, Sergio
The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior
Journal of Labor Economics 24,3 (July 2006): 411-482.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/504455
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Academic Development; Adolescent Behavior; Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; Crime; Educational Returns; Employment; Labor Market Outcomes; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Noncognitive Skills; Occupational Choice; Risk-Taking; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Schooling; Skills; Substance Use; Wages; Work Experience

This article establishes that a low-dimensional vector of cognitive and noncognitive skills explains a variety of labor market and behavioral outcomes. Our analysis addresses the problems of measurement error, imperfect proxies, and reverse causality that plague conventional studies. Noncognitive skills strongly influence schooling decisions and also affect wages, given schooling decisions. Schooling, employment, work experience, and choice of occupation are affected by latent noncognitive and cognitive skills. We show that the same low-dimensional vector of abilities that explains schooling choices, wages, employment, work experience, and choice of occupation explains a wide variety of risky behaviors.
Bibliography Citation
Heckman, James J., Jora Stixrud and Sergio Urzua. "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior." Journal of Labor Economics 24,3 (July 2006): 411-482.