IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1242.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Classical Studies Open your Mind?

Author

Listed:
  • Brunello, Giorgio
  • Esposito, Piero
  • Rocco, Lorenzo
  • Scicchitano, Sergio

Abstract

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 a more scientific academic curriculum. We find that having done classical studies does not affect conscientiousness and openness but increases neuroticism and self-reported unhappiness.

Suggested Citation

  • Brunello, Giorgio & Esposito, Piero & Rocco, Lorenzo & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2023. "Do Classical Studies Open your Mind?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1242, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1242
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/268940/1/GLO-DP-1242.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric A. Hanushek & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann & Lei Zhang, 2017. "General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 48-87.
    2. Kalena E. Cortes & Joshua S. Goodman & Takako Nomi, 2015. "Intensive Math Instruction and Educational Attainment: Long-Run Impacts of Double-Dose Algebra," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(1), pages 108-158.
    3. Andrew E. Clark & Akiko Kamesaka & Teruyuki Tamura, 2015. "Rising aspirations dampen satisfaction," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 515-531, October.
    4. Ollikainen, Jani-Petteri & Pekkarinen, Tuomas & Uusitalo, Roope & Virtanen, Hanna, 2022. "Effect of Secondary Education on Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 15318, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Lisha Agarwal & Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Rocco, 2021. "The Pathways to College," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(4), pages 554-595.
    6. Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Rocco, 2017. "The Labor Market Effects of Academic and Vocational Education over the Life Cycle: Evidence Based on a British Cohort," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 106-166.
    7. Joshua Goodman, 2019. "The Labor of Division: Returns to Compulsory High School Math Coursework," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(4), pages 1141-1182.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aghion, Philippe & Bergeaud, Antonin & Blundell, Richard & Griffith, Rachel, 2023. "Social Skills and the Individual Wage Growth of Less Educated Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 16456, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2017. "Who Are Afraid of Losing Their Jobs to Artificial Intelligence and Robots? Evidence from a Survey," GLO Discussion Paper Series 71, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Biewen, Martin & Schwerter, Jakob, 2019. "Does More Math in High School Increase the Share of Female STEM Workers? Evidence from a Curriculum Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 12236, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Andrew McEachin & Thurston Domina & Andrew Penner, 2020. "Heterogeneous Effects of Early Algebra across California Middle Schools," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 772-800, June.
    5. Juerg Schweri & Annina Eymann & Manuel Aepli, 2020. "Horizontal mismatch and vocational education," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(32), pages 3464-3478, June.
    6. Sönke Hendrik Matthewes & Guglielmo Ventura, 2022. "On Track to Success? Returns to vocational education against different alternatives," CVER Research Papers 038, Centre for Vocational Education Research.
    7. Dossi, Gaia & Figlio, David & Giuliano, Paola & Sapienza, Paola, 2021. "Born in the family: Preferences for boys and the gender gap in math," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 175-188.
    8. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2017. "Who Are Afraid of Losing Their Jobs to Artificial Intelligence and Robots? Evidence from a Survey," GLO Discussion Paper Series 71, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Thomsen, Stephan L. & Trunzer, Johannes, 2020. "Did the Bologna Process Challenge the German Apprenticeship System? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 13806, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Simon Briole, 2019. "From Teacher Quality to Teaching Quality: Instructional Productivity and Teaching Practices in the US," Working Papers halshs-01993616, HAL.
    11. Franziska Hampf & Ludger Woessmann, 2017. "Vocational vs. General Education and Employment over the Life Cycle: New Evidence from PIAAC," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 63(3), pages 255-269.
    12. Haverkamp Katarzyna & Seibert Holger & Wesling Mirko, 2020. "Sektorale und berufsspezifische Ausbildungsstrategien und Übergangsmuster nach der dualen Ausbildung," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 69(1), pages 44-68, May.
    13. Lenka Fiala & John Eric Humphries & Juanna Schrøter Joensen & Uditi Karna & John A. List & Gregory F. Veramendi, 2022. "How Early Adolescent Skills and Preferences Shape Economics Education Choices," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 609-613, May.
    14. Biewen, Martin & (neé Tapalaga), Madalina Thiele, 2020. "Early tracking, academic vs. vocational training, and the value of ‘second-chance’ options," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Neyt, Brecht & Verhaest, Dieter & Baert, Stijn, 2020. "The impact of dual apprenticeship programmes on early labour market outcomes: A dynamic approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Jia, Ning, 2021. "Do stricter high school math requirements raise college STEM attainment?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    17. Brecht Neyt & Dieter Verhaest & Stijn Baert, 2019. "The Impact of Internship Experience During Secondary Education on Schooling and Labour Market Outcomes," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 19/980, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    18. Zullo, Matteo, 2022. "(No) Trade-off between numeracy and verbal reasoning development: PISA evidence from Italy's academic tracking," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    19. Leighton, Margaret & Speer, Jamin D., 2020. "Labor market returns to college major specificity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    20. Marwa Sahnoun & Chokri Abdennadher, 2022. "Returns to Investment in Education in the OECD Countries: Does Governance Quality Matter?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 1819-1842, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    school choice; education; classical studies; Big-5; non-cognitive skills; personality traits;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.