Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Leveraging Standardized Tests to Measure Noncognitive Skills and Their Effect on College and Labor-Market Outcomes

智力和技术技能以外的技能，有时被称为“非认知技能”，如勤奋，毅力和自我控制，是重要的劳动力市场结果和收入决定因素。然而，理解为什么非认知技能影响劳动力市场的结果是有限的。 此外，很难衡量这些技能。该研究项目将使用一种创新的方法来衡量非认知技能，并研究这些技能影响收入和其他劳动力市场结果的渠道。利用管理数据，研究人员将测量高中生的非认知技能，并随着时间的推移跟踪他们，以评估他们的非认知技能与大学成绩和成年早期劳动力市场结果的关系。该项目将使人们更好地理解非认知技能与收入之间的联系。研究结果将为制定旨在提高美国生产力和经济成功的政策提供见解，这项研究的结果将导致更好的匹配和改善劳动力市场的表现，从而促进经济增长，改善美国公民的福祉。 社会科学家和决策者越来越认识到，非认知技能是收入的重要预测因素。然而，调节这些技能和劳动力市场成功之间关系的渠道并没有得到很好的理解。这个项目将提供一个更好的了解渠道，通过非认知技能影响劳动力市场的结果。本研究将以高中生在大学入学考试中的成绩下降为基础，建立一个非认知技能的显示性偏好测量。PI将把学生测量的非认知技能与所有大学入学者的普查和雇主-雇主匹配的数据集联系起来。利用这些数据，研究人员将研究非认知技能对重要结果的预测能力，包括大学毕业，大学质量，研究领域，职业和公司特征。这项研究将评估这些结果中的每一个是如何调节测量的非认知技能和收入之间的联系的。该项目的结果将产生有价值的知识，可能有助于设计提高美国劳动力技能的政策，从而促进生产力和经济增长。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Skills other than intelligence and technical skills, sometimes known as “noncognitive skills,” such as industriousness, perseverance, and self-control, are important labor market outcomes and earnings determinants. Yet, understanding why noncognitive skills influence labor-market outcomes is limited. Moreover, it is difficult to measure these skills. This research project will use an innovative methodology to measure noncognitive skills and study the channels through which these skills affect earnings and other labor market outcomes. Using administrative data, the researchers will measure noncognitive skills in high-school students and track them over time to assess how their noncognitive skills relate to their college outcomes and early adulthood labor market outcomes. The project will provide a better understanding of the linkages between noncognitive skills and earnings. The results will provide insight for formulating policies aimed at increasing productivity and economic success in the U.S. The results of this research will lead to better matching and improved labor market performance, and thus increase economic growth and improve the wellbeing of American citizens. There is increasing recognition among social scientists and policymakers that noncognitive skills are important predictors of earnings. However, the channels that mediate the relationship between these skills and labor-market success are not well understood. This project will provide a better understanding of the channels through which noncognitive skills influence labor-market outcomes. This research will create a revealed-preference measure of noncognitive skill based on performance decline of high-school students in a college admission exams. The PIs will link the students’ measured noncognitive skills to a census of all college enrollees and an employee-employer matched dataset. Using these data, the researchers will study the predictive power of noncognitive skills for important outcomes, including college graduation, college quality, field of study, occupation, and firm characteristics. The research will assess how each of these outcomes mediates the link between the measured noncognitive skill and earnings. The results of this project will produce valuable knowledge that may contribute to the design of policies that increase skills in the U.S. workforce and thereby promote productivity and economic growth. The results could lead to better matching and improved labor market performance, and thus increase economic growth and improve the wellbeing of American citizens.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.