The Importance of Early Conscientiousness for Socio-Economic Outcomes

Time: 2012, Tuesday June 12th, 13.00-14.00 hours
Location: CPB-office, Van Stolkweg 14, The Hague

Presentation: Bas ter Weel (CPB)

Discussant: Erik Plug (UvA)

Language: English

Registration:  Please register by sending an email to seminars@cpb.nl.

Abstract subject: This research investigates the importance of personality traits in explaining socio-economic outcomes. We select all working adults from the age 34 wage of the 1970 British Cohort study and use information on their childhood characteristics (at ages 5, 10 and 16) to explore how different skills affect adult wages and other outcomes, such as crime, health and savings behaviour. Our estimates suggest that early conscientiousness is a significant and sizeable predictor for adult outcomes. Investigation of the lower-order structure of our personality traits shows that facets related to reliability and impulse control are likely determinants of our findings. The results remain robust when controlling for other personality traits, different measures of early behaviour and behavioural problems, the child’s home environment, educational career, early sociability and occupational sorting. We also investigate changes in conscientiousness and find that persons who experience declines in the personality distribution between the ages 10 and 16 seem to be worse off.

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