This paper examines whether noncognitive skills - measured both by personality traits and economic preference parameters - influence cognitive tests performance. The basic idea is that noncognitive skills might affect the effort people put into a test to obtain good results. We experimentally...

We review the literature on national innovation systems. We first focus on the emergence of the concept of innovation systems, reviewing its historical origins and three main flavours (associated to three "founding fathers" of the concept). After this, we discuss how the notion of innovation...

Using data from the 1997 Skills Survey of the Employed BritishWorkforce, we examine the returns to computer skills in Britain.Many researchers, using information on computer use, have concludedthat wage differentials between computer users and non-users might,among others, be due to differences...

This research provides an economic model of the way people behave during an IQ test. We distinguish a technology that describes how time investment improves performance from preferences that determine how much time people invest in each question. We disentangle these two elements empirically...

This paper investigates the relation between social capital and crime. The analysis contributes to explaining why crime is so heterogeneous across space. By employing current and historical data for Dutch municipalities and by providing novel indicators to measure social capital, we find a link...

This paper develops a framework to understand the role of interpersonal interactions in the labor market including task assignment and wages. Effective interpersonal interactions involve caring, to establish cooperation, and at the same time directness, to communicate in an unambiguous way. The...

This paper explores the interface between personality psychology and economics. We examine the predictive power of personality and the stability of personality traits over the life cycle. We develop simple analytical frameworks for interpreting the evidence in personality psychology and suggest...

This paper introduces indicators about the division of labour to measure and interpret recent trends in employment in the Netherlands. We show that changes in the division of labour occur at three different levels: the level of the individual worker, the level of the industry and the spatial...

Computer use is mainly associated with skilled, high-wage workers. Furthermore, the introduction of computers leads to upgrading of skill requirements. This suggests that the computer requires certain skills to take full advantage of its possibilities. Empirical findings, however, suggest that...

This paper examines whether the forced resignation of managers of Dutch football teams leads to an improvement in the results. We find by analysing 12 years of football in the highest Dutch league that forced resignations are preceded by declines in team performance and followed by improvements...