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Noncognitive skills shape schooling decisions and wages conditional on schooling, and jointly explain risky behaviors and occupational choices.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-effects-of-cognitive-and-noncognitive-abilities-on-labor-market-outcomes-and-social-behavior-research-paper/294669/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-effects-of-cognitive-and-noncognitive-abilities-on-labor-market-outcomes-and-social-behavior-research-paper/294669.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Aria Callaghan","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-28","2026-09-18",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",10,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How do cognitive and noncognitive abilities relate to labor market outcomes and social behavior?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"A low-dimensional vector of both cognitive and noncognitive skills explains diverse labor market outcomes and behavioral outcomes. 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Latent noncognitive and cognitive skills further affect employment, work experience, and occupation choice.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},294669,1789697287,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,120,123,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":125},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":90,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":143,"preview_page_count":4},962084926284,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior∗  \nJames J. Heckman  \nUniversity of Chicago, UCL and American Bar Foundation  \nJora Stixrud  \nUniversity of Chicago  \nSergio Urzua University of Chicago  \nFebruary 17, 2006  \n∗ This research was supported by NIH Grant R01-HD043411 and a Pew Foundation grant to Heckman. This paper was presented at the Mark Berger memorial conference, University of Kentucky, October 2004; as one of the Ely lectures, Johns Hopkins University, April 2005; at University College, Dublin, Ireland, April 2005; at the Institute for Research on Poverty Workshop, Madison, June 2005 at the Second IZA Prize Conference, Berlin, Germany, October, 2005 and at the Workshop in Public Policy and Economics at the Harris School of the University of Chicago in September 2005 . We also presented it at the AEA annual meeting, Boston, January 2006 . We thank participants for their comments. We thank the editors William Johnson and James P. Ziliak and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. We also thank Jeff Grogger, Bruce Meyer and Derek Neal for very helpful comments that led to revisions and clarifications. Supplementary materials are [on our website jenni.uchicago.edu/noncog. We thank Federico Temerlin and](on our website jenni.uchicago.edu/noncog. We thank Federico Temerlin and)[ ](on our website jenni.uchicago.edu/noncog. We thank Federico Temerlin and)Tae Ho Whang for very competent research assistance.  \nAbstract  \nThis paper establishes that a low dimensional vector of cognitive and noncognitive skills explains a variety of labor market and behavioral outcomes. For many dimensions of social performance cognitive and noncognitive skills are equally important. Our analysis addresses the problems of measurement error, imperfect proxies, and reverse causality that plague conventional studies of cognitive and noncognitive skills that regress earnings (and other outcomes) on proxies for skills. 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 study a variety of correlated risky behaviors such as teenage pregnancy and marriage, smoking, marijuana use, and participation in illegal activities. The same low dimensional vector of abilities that explains schooling choices, wages, employment, work experience and choice of occupation explains these behavioral outcomes.  \nJEL Classification C31  \nJames J. Heckman University of Chicago Department of Economics Phone: 773-702-0634  \nFax: 773-702-8490  \n[Email: jjh@uchicago.edu](Email: jjh@uchicago.edu)  \nJora Stixrud  \nUniversity of Chicago Department of Economics Phone: 773-256-6367  \nEmail: [stixrud@uchicago.edu](stixrud@uchicago.edu)  \nSergio Urzua  \nUniversity of Chicago Department of Economics Phone: 773-256-6268  \nEmail: [surzua@uchicago.edu](surzua@uchicago.edu)  \n1 Introduction  \nNumerous studies establish that measured cognitive ability is a strong predictor of schooling attainment and wages.1 It also predicts a range of social behaviors.2 Less well investigated is the role of personal preference and personality traits on economic and social behavior.  \nCommon sense suggests that personality traits, persistence, motivation and charm matter for success in life. Marxist economists (Bowles and Gintis, 1976; Edwards, 1976) have produced a large body of evidence that employers in low skill labor markets value docility, dependability, and persistence more than cognitive ability or independent thought (see the survey by Bowles, Gintis, and Osborne, 2001) . Sociologists have written extensively about the role of noncognitive skills in predicting occupational attainment and wages (see the essay by Peter Mueser in Jencks, 1979) and several studies in the psychology literature have shown the important role of noncognitive skills on the schooling performa","cbCaiho2rmFKz5RJ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiho2rmFKz5RJ","pdf",1320672,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"How do cognitive and noncognitive abilities relate to labor market outcomes and social behavior?\",\"answer\":\"A low-dimensional vector of both cognitive and noncognitive skills explains diverse labor market outcomes and behavioral outcomes. For many social performance dimensions, both types of skills are similarly important.\"},{\"question\":\"What methodological problems does the paper address compared with conventional studies?\",\"answer\":\"The paper tackles measurement error, imperfect proxies, and reverse causality that often bias estimates when studies regress earnings and other outcomes on skill proxies.\"},{\"question\":\"How do noncognitive skills affect schooling, wages, and later life choices?\",\"answer\":\"Noncognitive skills strongly influence schooling decisions, and also affect wages given those schooling decisions. Latent noncognitive and cognitive skills further affect employment, work experience, and occupation choice.\"}]","The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior - Research Paper | PDF",202]