Inequality in Personality over the Life Cycle

Miriam Gensowski, Mette Gørtz and Stefanie Schurer

No 13378, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We describe gender and socioeconomic inequalities in the Big Five personality traits over the life cycle, using a facet-level inventory linked to administrative data. We estimate life-cycle profiles non-parametrically and test for cohort and sample-selection effects. We discuss the economic implications of the following findings: Women of all ages score more highly than men on all personality traits, including three that are positively associated with wages; Individuals with high own or parental education have more favorable traits except Conscientiousness; Over the life cycle, gender and socioeconomic gaps widen in Openness and shrink in Neuroticism, a trait associated with worse outcomes.

Keywords: gender gap; life cycle dynamics; Big Five facets; personality traits; socio-emotional skills; inequality; intergenerational transmission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 I31 J16 J24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-ltv and nep-neu
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Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, 184, 46-77

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Related works:
Journal Article: Inequality in personality over the life cycle (2021)
Working Paper: Inequality in Personality over the Life Cycle (2020)
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