Beyond Qualifications: Returns to Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills in Colombia

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Parental Investments and Children's Human Capital in Low-to-Middle-Income Countries

“…However changes in household structure are not significantly associated with socioemotional skills in preschool-age Chileans, in contrast to the association with cognitive skills noted above (Reynolds et al, 2018). A study using a random sample of 2,617 adults aged 15-64 in thirteen urban areas in Colombia finds that higher levels of mothers' schooling attainment significantly predict better scores on adults' (1) extroversion and openness to experience, (2) emotional stability and hostile attribution bias, and (3) conscientiousness, grit and decision making (Acosta et al, 2015).…”

Which Skills Matter for What Type of Worker? Cognitive Skills, Personality Traits, Hiring Channels and Wages in Bangladesh

“…Taken together, a mixed-sex sample would complicate the interpretations of the estimated correlations, which is why we are restricting the sample to male workers (who represent an overwhelming proportion-80%-of the worker sample in the Bangladesh ESS 2012). 11 Previous work further finds a positive selection into the formal sector based on skills (e.g., Acosta et al, 2015;Cobb-Clark & Tan, 2011). As we cannot account for selection into formal employment, our estimated coefficients in wage regressions are likely to be attenuated, resulting in lower bounds.…”

“…In Peru, Díaz et al (2013) find that returns to perseverance are as high as returns to average cognitive ability. Other papers have found rather mixed evidence: Glewwe et al (2017) show that in China, both cognitive and socio-emotional skills are important for the school-to-work transition, but they do not predict wages; similarly, Acosta et al (2015) find a larger impact of cognitive skills than non-cognitive skills on labour market outcomes and OECD (2015) suggests that raising cognitive skills might ultimately be more important than raising socio-emotional skills in determining incomes.…”

Desarrollo de habilidades para la vida en estudiantes universitarios por medio de un programa de asignaturas electivas: un análisis de coincidencia de percepciones

“…Estos resultados dan cabida a profundas reflexiones sobre la labor de la educación superior para el desarrollo de HPV en el contexto colombiano, que han mostrado ser predictores importantes en las ganancias futuras y calidad en la vida laboral (Acosta et al, 2015). Más allá de las perspectivas de las y los estudiantes para proyectos futuros, las habilidades socio-emocionales también son importantes para afrontar la misma vida académica; por ello, no es de extrañar que la totalidad de participantes que decidieron tomar la asignatura "Estrés: entenderlo, prevenirlo, gestionarlo positivamente y aprovecharlo" sean estudiantes de la Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud: una población que presenta más síntomas de depresión, ansiedad y estrés que la población general (Elsheshtawy et al, 2018;Lail et al, 2021).…”