We investigate whether classical studies in high school - that emphasize in Italy the study of ancient languages such as Latin and Greek - affect personality traits. Using Italian survey data, we compare individuals who did classical studies in high school with similar individuals who completed...

This paper examines the effects of increasing the compulsory school leaving (CSL) age from 16 to 18 in Hungary using a regression discontinuity design (RDD) identification strategy. The new CSL age was introduced for those entering their first year of elementary school in 1998. Identification is...

Non-cognitive skills are important predictors of success on the labour market and in many areas of economic and social life. This paper explores the current literature on the economics of non-cognitive skill formation and the most important explanatory factors behind the recent boost of the...

Institutions of the liberal democracies of the developed Western world are increasingly insufficient to deal with the ever worsening of social problems associated with technological progress, the rapid economic transformation of the economy, the demographic issues and the acceleration of...

We use the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data to construct several measures of non-cognitive skills and to analyze the relationship between non-cognitive skills and earnings. We construct measures for non-cognitive skills based on previous research in...

Kinder im Alter von vier bis fünf Jahren, die eine Kindertageseinrichtung (Kita) besuchen, verhalten sich prosozialer, wenn die Bildungs- und Betreuungsqualität ihrer Kita höher ist. Das heißt, sie sind beispielsweise eher rücksichtsvoll und teilen mit anderen Kindern. Insbesondere Kinder,...

Women have historically been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs. There are concerns that the persistence of this gap over time is in part due to path dependence and the historical lack of high-performing women in these fields. This paper uses administrative...

Women have historically been underrepresented in STEM majors and occupations, a gap that has persisted over time. There are concerns that this is related to academic choices made at an earlier age. The purpose of this paper is to examine how social environment affects women's STEM choices as...

We investigate the educational choices of first- and second-generation immigrantstudents at the transition between lower-secondary school and high school byexploiting a large longitudinal dataset of about 50,000 students in Italy. We findthat immigrant students are less likely to choose...