Soft-Skills and Long-Run Labor Market Success
Year: 1998
Type: preprint
Abstract: The long-run impact on earnings of motivational and social factors is assessed using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Our analyses use a sample of men first observed in their 20s and relates their social and motivational traits to labor-market attainments measured 15-25 years later. We also examine the role of on-the-job training and labor supply in accounting for the link between earnings and these motivational and social traits. In contrast to most previous work with these data, we find considerable analytic power for a number of traits. Taken together, our motivational measures are as powerful as completed schooling in accounting for future labor-market success. Some of our social-trait measures serve as negative predictors of earnings, while a measure of the cleanliness of the respondent's home was a persistently powerful positive predictor of labor-market success.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: Greg J. Duncan, Rachel Dunifon
Institutions: Northwestern University, National Bureau of Economic Research
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3123975224