Self-esteem and educational attainment

Daniele Checchi () and Gabriella PRAVETTONI ()

Departemental Working Papers from Department of Economics University of Milan Italy

Abstract: In this paper we consider the role of behavioural traits (self-confidence, decomposed into selfefficacy and self-liking) as potential determinants of academic career. While we find confirmation of previous results in the literature with respect to previous schooling and parental education, we do not find indication of robust effects from these traits. Both measures correlate positively with academic performance, but when potential endogeneity is accounted for through the use of instrumental variable estimation techniques, they lose statistical significance. In addition, if we consider a more general model where both behavioural traits and academic performance are jointly determined, we find that self-liking is endogenous to the joint process, whereas academic performance and self-efficacy reinforce each other.

Keywords: self-esteem; educational attainment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
Date: Written
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mil:wpdepa:2003-30

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