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Author: Petre, Melinda C. A.
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Petre, Melinda C. A.
Essays on the Impact of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills on Labor Market Outcomes
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Texas, 2014
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Texas at Austin
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); CESD (Depression Scale); Employment, History; Labor Market Outcomes; Motivation; Noncognitive Skills; Pearlin Mastery Scale; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Analyzing the distributions of wages for whites, blacks and Hispanics reveals the existence of a wage gap throughout the distribution. There are also clear cognitive and noncognitive skill differences across groups. Do differences in the distributions of these skills explain differences in the distributions of wages? Do predicted distributions of wages resulting from rewarding blacks and Hispanics as if they were white help explain the observed wage gap? Using data from the NLSY79, I look at the impacts of noncognitive skills on wages for blacks, Hispanics and whites. I estimate the entire distribution of wages conditional on skills for blacks and Hispanics to see if there is a difference in wages individuals with the same level of cognitive and noncognitive skills. I find that all cognitive and noncognitive measures examined are important in explaining the wage penalty paid by blacks and Hispanics and that, for blacks, predicting their wages conditional on skills approximates the distribution of actual wages.
Bibliography Citation
Petre, Melinda C. A. Essays on the Impact of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills on Labor Market Outcomes. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Texas, 2014.