Asymmetric information on non-cognitive skills in the Indian labor market: An experiment using an online job portal

Asymmetric information on non-cognitive skills in the Indian labor market: An experiment using an online job portal PDF Author: Yamauchi, Futoshi
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
This paper examines the impact of non-cognitive (socio-emotional) skills on job market outcomes using a randomized control trial implemented in an online job portal in India. Job seekers who registered in the portal were asked to take a Big Five type personality test and, for a random sub-sample of the test takers, the results were displayed to potential employers. Outcomes are measured by whether a potential employer shortlists a seeker by opening (unlocking) his/her application and background information. The results show that the treatment group for whom test results were shown generally enjoyed a higher probability of unlock. That is, employers are more interested in those for whom they can see personality test results. Such a relationship was not seen in the pre-test period, which confirms that the above results are unlikely to be spurious. We also found a significant impact among organized, calm, imaginative and/or quiet applicants (no effect was detected among easy-going, sensitive, realistic and/or out-going applicants), which seems to display employers’ preferences.

Asymmetric information on non-cognitive skills in the Indian labor market: An experiment using an online job portal

Asymmetric information on non-cognitive skills in the Indian labor market: An experiment using an online job portal PDF Author: Yamauchi, Futoshi
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 29

Get Book Here

Book Description
This paper examines the impact of non-cognitive (socio-emotional) skills on job market outcomes using a randomized control trial implemented in an online job portal in India. Job seekers who registered in the portal were asked to take a Big Five type personality test and, for a random sub-sample of the test takers, the results were displayed to potential employers. Outcomes are measured by whether a potential employer shortlists a seeker by opening (unlocking) his/her application and background information. The results show that the treatment group for whom test results were shown generally enjoyed a higher probability of unlock. That is, employers are more interested in those for whom they can see personality test results. Such a relationship was not seen in the pre-test period, which confirms that the above results are unlikely to be spurious. We also found a significant impact among organized, calm, imaginative and/or quiet applicants (no effect was detected among easy-going, sensitive, realistic and/or out-going applicants), which seems to display employers’ preferences.

Skills and the Labor Market in a New Era

Skills and the Labor Market in a New Era PDF Author: Ignacio Apella
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464815267
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 99

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Book Description
Uruguay faces medium- and long-term challenges associated with two global megatrends: population aging and technological change. These two megatrends have been developing for some time, but policy responses have been late or inadequate in many cases. Trying to delay them--by promoting higher fertility or enforcing restrictions on the adoption of new technologies--would probably be ineffective but also ill-advised, as these trends are generating important opportunities to increase production and welfare. The objective of this book is to identify these opportunities, as well as the challenges that population aging and technological change pose for the Uruguayan economy and to determine how they can be addressed through better-designed public policies, with a focus on the development of new skills that increase workers’ productivity.

Minds and Behaviors at Work

Minds and Behaviors at Work PDF Author: Wendy Cunningham
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464808856
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Although the Latin American region has shown an impressive growth in educational attainment over the past two decades, that education has failed to yield expected benefits. A mounting body of research and policy debates argues that the quantity of education is not an adequate metric of human capital acquisition. Rather, individuals’ skills—what they actually know and can do—should stand as policy targets and be fostered across the life course. Evidence from around the world shows that both cognitive and socio-emotional skills are demanded by employers and favorably affect a range of outcomes, including educational attainment and employment outcomes. Through original empirical research investigating the role of cognitive and socio-emotional skills in shaping adults’ labor market outcomes in Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru, supplemented by similar studies in other Latin American countries, this review confirms that cognitive skills matter for reaping labor market gains in terms of higher wages and formal jobs in Latin America; but so do socio-emotional skills. Moreover, socio-emotional skills seem to particularly influence labor force participation and tertiary education attendance as a platform to build knowledge. The study also presents a policy framework for skills development by: (i) providing insights by developmental psychologists about when people are neuro-biologically, socio-emotionally, and situationally ready to develop socio-emotional skills, and (ii) suggesting new directions in cognitive development.

Hidden Potential

Hidden Potential PDF Author: Maurizio Bussolo
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464818363
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
Informality remains widespread in South Asia despite decades of economic growth. The low earnings and high vulnerability in the informal sector make this a major development issue for the region. Yet, there is no consensus on its causes and consequences, with the debate polarized between a view that informality is a problem of regulatory evasion and should be eradicated, and another that equates informality with economic exclusion. Recent advances in analyzing informality as the outcome of firm dynamics in distorted economic environments can help reconcile them. Building on these advances, the approach adopted in this volume clarifies that there are different types of informality, with different drivers and consequences. The report has four main messages that underscore the need for a multipronged strategy. First, informality in South Asia is dominated by firms that happen to be outside the purview of regulations because they are small, as opposed to those that remain small to escape regulations. Second, reforms of business regulations tend to have small direct effects on the informal sector, although they could have sizable indirect impacts on it if they succeed in removing major inefficiencies in the broader economy. Third, e-commerce platforms offer new opportunities to informal firms and workers, but many of them lack complementary skills or credit to benefit from such technologies. Fourth, a combination of contributory and non-contributory programs recognizing the heterogenous saving capacities of informal workers may be necessary to achieve more universal coverage of social insurance.

Human Capital and Gender Inequality in Middle-Income Countries

Human Capital and Gender Inequality in Middle-Income Countries PDF Author: Elizabeth M. King
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000641031
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
The role of cognitive and socioemotional skills alongside education in determining people’s success in the labour market has been the topic of a growing body of research - but previous studies have mostly missed middle-income countries and the developing world because measures of those skills and data on employment and earnings on large enough samples of adults have typically not been available. Using comparable survey data on these schooling, skills and labour market outcomes from 13 developing and emerging economies worldwide, this book revisits human capital and gender inequality models. It presents new estimates of the returns to different levels of schooling as well as cognitive and socioemotional skills for women and men. It examines whether those returns are due to levels of human capital or to structural bias in labour markets, and how these two factors work across the earnings spectrum. The book examines the existence of 'glass ceilings' and 'sticky floors' for women using this expanded measure of human capital. Further, by analyzing a group of countries of wide-ranging levels of economic development and socio-political contexts, the book reveals patterns and insights into how context mediates the relationship between skills and gender gaps in labour market outcomes. This book will be of interest to scholars of human capital and gender inequality in the labour market and development economics, as well as gender and development policy makers.

Investing in Youth: Peru

Investing in Youth: Peru PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264305823
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
The present report on Peru is part of the series on "Investing in Youth", which builds on the expertise of the OECD on youth employment, social support and skills. This series covers both OECD countries and countries in the process of accession to the OECD, as well as some emerging economies.

The Right Skills for the Job?

The Right Skills for the Job? PDF Author: Rita Almeida
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821387154
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This book revisits skills development policies and points to new directions for making training programs more effective and responsive in increasingly competitive labor market.

Skilling up Vietnam

Skilling up Vietnam PDF Author: Christian Bodewig
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464802327
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Education has played an important role in making Vietnam a development success story over the last twenty years. In the 1990s and early 2000s Vietnam experienced rapid economic growth and poverty reduction in the wake of a rapid shift of employment from low-productivity agriculture to higher-productivity nonfarm jobs. Vietnam's committed effort to promote access to quality primary education for all has enabled this transformation and contributed to the country's reputation for having a young, well-educated work force. Skilling Up Vietnam argues that to continue its success story, Vietnam needs to renew its focus on education: not just expanding attainment, but equipping its workforce with the right skills will be needed to foster to Vietnam's continued economic modernization in the coming decade and more. Despite the evidence of impressive basic literacy and numeracy achievements among Vietnamese youth and workers presented in this book, many Vietnamese businesses report that a significant obstacle to their activity is the shortage of workers with adequate skills. Drawing on a survey of employers in urban areas, the book finds that, in addition to job-specific skills, Vietnamese employers value cognitive skills, such as problem solving and critical thinking, and behavioral skills, such as team work and communication. Reorienting Vietnam's education system toward teaching these types of skills will help prepare Vietnamese workers for a modern market economy. Skilling Up Vietnam proposes a three-step holistic skills strategy that looks at today's workforce as much as the future workforce. Vietnam's skills development efforts should focus on promoting school readiness through early childhood development, ensuring a strong cognitive and behavioral foundation in general education, and building job-relevant technical skills through a more connected system among employers, students and universities, and vocational schools.

Back to Work

Back to Work PDF Author: Omar S. Arias
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 082139911X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
What can be done to create more and better jobs in Europe and Central Asia? And should there be specific policies to help workers access those jobs? The authors of this book examine these questions through the lens of two contextual factors: the legacy of centralized planned economies and the mounting demographic pressures associated with rapid aging in some countries and soaring numbers of youth entering the workforce in others. The authors find the following: Market reforms pay off, albeit with a lag, in terms of jobs and productivity. A small fraction of superstar high-growth firms accounts for most of the new jobs created in the region. Skills gaps hinder employment prospects, especially of youth and older workers, because of the inadequate response by the education and training systems to changes in the demand for skills. Employment is hindered by high implicit taxes on formal work and barriers that affect especially women, minorities, youth, and older workers. Low internal labor mobility prevents labor relocation to places with greater job creation potential. Back to Work: Growing with Jobs in Europe and Central Asia asserts that to get more people back to work and to grow with jobs, countries, especially late reformers, need to regain the momentum for economic and institutional reforms that existed before the economic crisis. They should lay the fundamentals to create jobs for all workers, by pushing reforms to create the enabling environment for existing firms to grow, become more productive, or exit the market and let new firms emerge and succeed (or fail fast and cheap). They should also implement policies to support workers so that those workers are prepared to take on the new jobs being created, by having the right skills and incentives, unhindered access to work, and being ready to relocate.

The Stability of Big-five Personality Traits

The Stability of Big-five Personality Traits PDF Author: Deborah A. Cobb-Clark
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780734042545
Category : Employment
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description