The Skills to Pay the Bills: Returns to On-the-job Soft Skills Training

Achyuta Adhvaryu, Namrata Kala and Anant Nyshadham

No 24313, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We evaluate the causal impacts of on-the-job soft skills training on the productivity, wages, and retention of female garment workers in India. The program increased women’s extraversion and communication, and spurred technical skill upgrading. Treated workers were 20 percent more productive than controls post-program. Wages rise very modestly with treatment (by 0.5 percent), with no differential turnover, suggesting that although soft skills raise workers’ marginal products, labor market frictions are large enough to create a substantial wedge between productivity and wages. Consistent with this, the net return to the firm was large: 258 percent eight months after program completion.

JEL-codes: J24 M53 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
Note: DEV LS PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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