IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v44y2013icp120-125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors influencing adult earnings: Findings from a nationally representative sample

Author

Listed:
  • Furnham, Adrian
  • Cheng, Helen

Abstract

This study explored a longitudinal data set of over 5000 adults’ determining factors that influence adults salary/wage earnings. In a large, nationally representative sample in the UK, the National Child Development Study, data were collected at birth, in childhood (age 11), and adulthood (age 50) to examine the effects of family social background, childhood ability tests scores, adult personality traits, educational and occupational attainment on current earnings. Results showed that for men, parental social status and trait Conscientiousness had modest but significant and direct influence in their earnings in adulthood; whereas for women the traits of intellect and emotional stability had modest but significant and direct influence in their financial well-being in adulthood. For both men and women, childhood intelligence had a significant and direct effect on adult earnings, and family background and childhood intelligence in part predicted adult earnings mediating through educational qualifications and occupational prestige. The strongest predictor of adult earnings was current occupational prestige. The gender wage differential and its implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Furnham, Adrian & Cheng, Helen, 2013. "Factors influencing adult earnings: Findings from a nationally representative sample," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 120-125.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:44:y:2013:i:c:p:120-125
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2013.02.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535713000188
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2013.02.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Groves, Melissa Osborne, 2005. "How important is your personality? Labor market returns to personality for women in the US and UK," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 827-841, December.
    2. B. F. Kiker & C. M. Condon, 1981. "The Influence of Socioeconomic Background on the Earnings of Young Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 16(1), pages 94-105.
    3. Melissa Osborne & Herbert Gintis & Samuel Bowles, 2001. "The Determinants of Earnings: A Behavioral Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1137-1176, December.
    4. Linz, Susan J. & Semykina, Anastasia, 2009. "Personality traits as performance enhancers? A comparative analysis of workers in Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 71-91, February.
    5. Nyhus, Ellen K. & Pons, Empar, 2005. "The effects of personality on earnings," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 363-384, June.
    6. Semykina, Anastasia & Linz, Susan J., 2007. "Gender differences in personality and earnings: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 387-410, June.
    7. Haberfeld, Yitchak, 1992. "Pay, valence of pay and gender: A simultaneous equation model," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 93-109, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alderotti, Giammarco & Rapallini, Chiara & Traverso, Silvio, 2023. "The Big Five personality traits and earnings: A meta-analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    2. Leonora Risse & Lisa Farrell & Tim R L Fry, 2018. "Personality and pay: do gender gaps in confidence explain gender gaps in wages?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(4), pages 919-949.
    3. Ma. Jesusa Corazon M Lambert & Zuroni Md Jusoh & Husniyah Abd Rahim & Norzalina Zainudin, 2023. "Factors Affecting Financial Well-being of Millennials: A Systematic Review," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 15(2), pages 98-108.
    4. Helen Cheng & Adrian Furnham, 2014. "The Associations Between Parental Socio-Economic Conditions, Childhood Intelligence, Adult Personality Traits, Social Status and Mental Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 653-664, June.
    5. Della Giusta, Marina & Jewell, Sarah, 2021. "Working for Nothing: Personality and Time Allocation in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 14971, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Mark E. McGovern & Aditi Krishna & Victor M. Aguayo & S.V. Subramanian, 2017. "A Review of the Evidence Linking Child Stunting to Economic Outcomes," CHaRMS Working Papers 17-03, Centre for HeAlth Research at the Management School (CHaRMS).
    7. Fries, Jonathan & Pietschnig, Jakob, 2022. "An intelligent mind in a healthy body? Predicting health by cognitive ability in a large European sample," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Michal Brzezinski, 2017. "Childhood circumstances, personality traits and adult-life economic outcomes in developing countries: Evidence from STEP," IBS Working Papers 05/2017, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    9. Kajonius, Petri J. & Carlander, Anders, 2017. "Who gets ahead in life? Personality traits and childhood background in economic success," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 164-170.

    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. Palifka, Bonnie J., 2009. "Personality and income in Mexico: Supervisor assessments vs. self-assessments," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 92-106, February.
    2. Heineck, Guido & Anger, Silke, 2010. "The returns to cognitive abilities and personality traits in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 535-546, June.
    3. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Boyce, Christopher J. & Wood, Alex M., 2011. "Can Money Change Who We Are? Estimating the Effects of Unearned Income on Measures of Incentive-Enhancing Personality Traits," IZA Discussion Papers 6131, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Boyce, Christopher J. & Wood, Alex M., 2011. "Personality and the marginal utility of income: Personality interacts with increases in household income to determine life satisfaction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 183-191.
    5. Jutta Viinikainen & Katja Kokko & Lea Pulkkinen & Jaakko Pehkonen, 2010. "Personality and Labour Market Income: Evidence from Longitudinal Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(2), pages 201-220, June.
    6. Leonora Risse & Lisa Farrell & Tim R L Fry, 2018. "Personality and pay: do gender gaps in confidence explain gender gaps in wages?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(4), pages 919-949.
    7. Judith Offerhaus, 2013. "The Type to Train?: Impacts of Personality Characteristics on Further Training Participation," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 531, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    8. Robert Wells & Roger Ham & P. N. (Raja) Junankar, 2016. "An examination of personality in occupational outcomes: antagonistic managers, careless workers and extraverted salespeople," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(7), pages 636-651, February.
    9. Ham, Roger & Junankar, Pramod N. (Raja) & Wells, Robert, 2009. "Occupational Choice: Personality Matters," IZA Discussion Papers 4105, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Linz, Susan J. & Semykina, Anastasia, 2009. "Personality traits as performance enhancers? A comparative analysis of workers in Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 71-91, February.
    11. Boyce, Christopher J. & Wood, Alex M., 2011. "Personality and the marginal utility of income: Personality interacts with increases in household income to determine life satisfaction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 183-191, April.
    12. Madhu S. Mohanty, 2019. "Role of psychological variables in the determination of the worker's wage: Further evidence from the United States," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 54-77, March.
    13. Brenzel, Hanna & Laible, Marie-Christine, 2016. "Does personality matter? : the impact of the big five on the migrant and gender wage gaps," IAB-Discussion Paper 201626, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    14. Maite Blázquez & Santiago Budr�a, 2012. "Overeducation dynamics and personality," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 260-283, March.
    15. Budría, Santiago & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2012. "Income Comparisons and Non-Cognitive Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 6419, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Himmler, Oliver & Koenig, Tobias, 2012. "Self-Evaluations and Performance: Evidence from Adolescence," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-507, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    17. de Araujo, Pedro & Lagos, Stephen, 2013. "Self-esteem, education, and wages revisited," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 120-132.
    18. Caliendo, Marco & Mahlstedt, Robert & Mitnik, Oscar A., 2017. "Unobservable, but unimportant? The relevance of usually unobserved variables for the evaluation of labor market policies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 14-25.
    19. Kesavayuth, Dusanee & Ko, Kaung Myat & Zikos, Vasileios, 2018. "Locus of control and financial risk attitudes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 122-131.
    20. Marta Palczynska, 2018. "Wage premia for skills: The complementarity of cognitive and non-cognitive skills," IBS Working Papers 09/2018, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.

    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:eee:soceco:v:44:y:2013:i:c:p:120-125. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    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.