Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/100164 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
CeDEx Discussion Paper Series No. 2014-01
Publisher: 
The University of Nottingham, Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx), Nottingham
Abstract: 
We collected personality (Big Five) and demographic characteristics, and ran incentivized experiments measuring cognitive skills (non-verbal IQ, numeracy, backward induction/planning), and economic (time, risk) preferences, with 100 students at a small public undergraduate liberal arts college in the Midwestern US as part of a larger study that collected the same measures from 1,065 trainee truckers. Using standardized (z-score) versions of our variables we analyze their relative power to predict (1) timely graduation (four years or less), (2) graduation in six years or less, and (3) final GPA. The proactive aspect of Conscientious (but not the inhibitive one) has a large and robust positive effect on all three outcomes, and Agreeableness has a robust negative effect on both graduation outcomes, but not on GPA. Economic time preferences predict graduation in four years, and GPA. Cognitive skill measures predict as expected if entered individually in a multivariate model, but when all variables compete it is only our backward induction measure ("Hit15") that weakly predicts graduation in four years, and strongly predicts graduation in six years. Trainee truckers work in a different vocational setting and their results are appropriately different, but there is a common element: Hit15 also predicts job success (completing a one year employment contract that makes training free). We interpret Hit15 as capturing a specific part of the cognitive skills required for selfmanagement in non-routine settings - thinking backward from future goals to make the best current choice - that is not well measured by existing instruments, and suggest this deserves further scientific and institutional scrutiny.
Subjects: 
graduation
Big Five
cognitive skill
backward induction
economic preferences
GPA
JEL: 
D03
I21
C99
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
653.12 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.