Hard evidence on soft skills

Abstract

This paper summarizes recent evidence on what achievement tests measure; how achievement tests relate to other measures of “cognitive ability” like IQ and grades; the important skills that achievement tests miss or mismeasure, and how much these skills matter in life. Achievement tests miss, or perhaps more accurately, do not adequately capture, soft skills—personality traits, goals, motivations, and preferences that are valued in the labor market, in school, and in many other domains. The larger message of this paper is that soft skills predict success in life, that they causally produce that success, and that programs that enhance soft skills have an important place in an effective portfolio of public policies.

The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility

“…As discussed in Almlund et al (2011), and Heckman and Kautz (2012, 2014), all tests are just measures of performance on some tasks, i.e. some other behaviors.…”

Locus of Control and the Labor Market

“…In fact, much of the effect of locus of control on labor market outcomes, in particular wages, may operate indirectly through the decisions individuals make to acquire productive skills (Heckman et al 2006;Piatek and Pinger, 2010). There are large literatures, for example, documenting the relationship between locus of control and academic performance (e.g., Wang et al 1999;Heckman and Kautz 2012;Mendolia and Walker 2014b); health behaviors (e.g., Wallston et al 1978;Steptoe and Wardle 2001;Chiteji 2010;Cobb-Clark et al 2014;Mendolia and Walker 2014a); and employment-related training (Offerhaus 2013). 10 Coleman and DeLeire (2003) were the first to theorize that locus of control affects educational outcomes by influencing adolescents' beliefs about the returns to education.…”

“…17 The effectiveness of interventions to improve non-cognitive skills has been a particular focus of Heckman and his co-authors. See Almlund et al (2011) and Heckman and Kautz (2012; for important reviews of the evidence. 18 For example, see Cobb-Clark and Schurer (2013) and Boyce et al (2013), who reach substantially different conclusions despite using the same data and finding effect sizes that are similar in magnitude.…”

How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?

“…There has been a relatively recent shift in the terminology away from “noncognitive skills” to “personality traits,” while in fact both of these terms stand for the same underlying personal characteristics. In their overview article, Heckman and Kautz (2012) provide a succinct summary of the state of the terminology. …”