The Rising Return to Noncognitive Skill

Per-Anders Edin, Peter Fredriksson, Martin Nybom and Björn Öckert

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 78-100

Abstract: This paper uses administrative data from Sweden to document trends in the labor market returns to skills. Between 1992 and 2013, the economic return to noncognitive skill⁠—a psychologist-assessed measure of teamwork and leadership skill⁠—roughly doubled. The return to cognitive skill was relatively stable and decreased modestly during the 2000s, however. Among men with similar levels of education, the return to noncognitive skill is higher than the return to cognitive skill. The increasing return to noncognitive skill is driven by changes at the top of the wage distribution and by sorting into higher-paying occupations.

JEL-codes: I26 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (57)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190199 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E120341V2 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190199.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190199.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The rising return to non-cognitive skill (2018)
Working Paper: The Rising Return to Non-cognitive Skills* (2018)
Working Paper: The Rising Return to Non-Cognitive Skill (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:14:y:2022:i:2:p:78-100

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/app.20190199

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().