Socio-emotional Skills Matter

Sergio Urzúa is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland.

We’ve long known that cognitive skills, such as literacy and numeracy, matter greatly for employment and wages. But how about non-cognitive skills – the “soft” skills, such as self-esteem and motivation?

We spoke with Sergio Urzúa, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, whose research has focused on how these different types of skills determine schooling decisions, labor market outcomes, and social behavior. He says new evidence shows that the socio-emotional skills also matter greatly for labor markets, and deficits in these skills may feed into income inequality.

This post was first published on the Jobs Knowledge Platform.