Leaving school in an economic downturn and self-esteem across early and middle adulthood

Johanna Maclean and Terrence Hill ()
Additional contact information
Terrence Hill: Department of Sociology, The University of Utah

No 1505, DETU Working Papers from Department of Economics, Temple University

Abstract: In this study we test whether leaving school in an economic downturn impacts self-esteem. Self-esteem is an important dimension of non-cognitive skill that economists have recently begun to examine. Previous work documents that leaving school in a downturn persistently depresses career outcomes, and career success is an important determinant of self-esteem. We model responses to the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale as a function of the state unemployment rate at school-leaving. We address the potential endogeneity of time and location of school- leaving with instrumental variables. Our results suggest that leaving school in an economic downturn lowers self-esteem men but effects do not emerge until middle adulthood, and are particularly strong for white and high skill men.

Keywords: self-esteem; non-cognitive skills; school-leaving; macroeconomic fluctuations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I12 J2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma, nep-neu and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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http://www.cla.temple.edu/RePEc/documents/DETU_15_05.pdf First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Leaving school in an economic downturn and self-esteem across early and middle adulthood (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tem:wpaper:1505

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