IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v10y2022i7p169-d863597.html

The Development of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills in Students in the Autonomous Province of Trento

Author

Listed:
  • Giorgio Vittadini

    (Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods and CRISP (Interuniversity Research Centre on Public Services), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20100 Milan, Italy)

  • Giuseppe Folloni

    (Department of Economics and Management, Università di Trento, Via Vigilio Inama 5, 38122 Trento, Italy)

  • Caterina Sturaro

    (Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods and CRISP (Interuniversity Research Centre on Public Services), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20100 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

The analysis of what human capital (HC) is has a long history and culminates in the acknowledgment that HC and its growth are very important for both cognitive education (cognitive skills (CSs)) and personal life (noncognitive skills (NCSs)) and that CSs and NCSs have a strong reciprocal relationship, as studies by Heckman demonstrated. The present contribution (following Heckman’s approach) analyzed the relationship between CSs and NCSs in a sample of middle school students in the Autonomous Province of Trento. The second goal of the research was to verify whether educational teaching behaviors improved students’ personalities. Aside from the use of administrative data (INVALSI data, 2015 and 2018), one survey was administered in the 2018–2019 schooling year to verify the relationship between NCSs and CSs. Moreover, we sought to determine whether education teaching behavior improved the students’ personalities (1522 students in 25 schools) and whether programs could enhance NCSs. Methodological tools for the analysis involved the generalized least squares approach to answer the first question and a difference-in-differences model for the second. The main results showed that the levels of NCSs affected the ability to learn and improve CSs; a challenging teaching approach, especially if accompanied by programs improving its quality, had positive results. Finally, the research suggested that a wider, national-based survey following students from primary to secondary school would allow for a greater understanding of the dynamics of CSs and NCSs.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgio Vittadini & Giuseppe Folloni & Caterina Sturaro, 2022. "The Development of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills in Students in the Autonomous Province of Trento," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:10:y:2022:i:7:p:169-:d:863597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/10/7/169/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/10/7/169/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ignacio García-Pérez, J. & Hidalgo-Hidalgo, Marisa, 2017. "No student left behind? Evidence from the Programme for School Guidance in Spain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 97-111.
    2. James J. Heckman & Jora Stixrud & Sergio Urzua, 2006. "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 411-482, July.
    3. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Burton A. Weisbrod, 1961. "The Valuation of Human Capital," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(5), pages 425-425.
    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. Oswald, Yvonne & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2014. "Learning for a bonus: How financial incentives interact with preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 52-61.
    2. Maria Klonowska-Matynia & Radosław Sobko, 2021. "Spatial Analysis of the Relationship between Health Capital and the Level of Health Care Expenditure in Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 133-151.
    3. Brindusa Anghel & Pau Balart, 2017. "Non-cognitive skills and individual earnings: new evidence from PIAAC," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 417-473, November.
    4. Pawlowski, Tim & Schüttoff, Ute & Downward, Paul & Lechner, Michael, 2014. "Children’s skill formation in less developed countries – The impact of sports participation," Economics Working Paper Series 1412, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    5. Eichhorst, Werner & Kalleberg, Arne & Portela Souza, André & Visser, Jelle, 2019. "Designing Good Labour Market Institutions: How to Reconcile Flexibility, Productivity and Security?," IZA Discussion Papers 12482, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Michael J. Kottelenberg & Steven F. Lehrer, 2019. "How Skills and Parental Valuation of Education Influence Human Capital Acquisition and Early Labor Market Return to Human Capital in Canada," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S2), pages 735-778.
    7. Humburg, M. & van der Velden, R.K.W., 2014. "Skills and the graduate recruitment process: Evidence from two discrete choice experiments," ROA Research Memorandum 002, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    8. Antoni, Manfred & Heineck, Guido, 2012. "Do literacy and numeracy pay off? : on the relationship between basic skills and earnings," IAB-Discussion Paper 201221, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    9. Shannon Ward & Jenny Williams & Jan C. van Ours, 2021. "Delinquency, Arrest and Early School Leaving," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(2), pages 411-436, April.
    10. Fiorenzo Parziale & Ivano Scotti, 2016. "Education as a Resource of Social Innovation," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(3), pages 21582440166, July.
    11. 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).
    12. David J. Deming & Mikko I. Silliman, 2024. "Skills and Human Capital in the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 32908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Moeeni, Safoura & Wei, Feng, 2022. "The labor market returns to unobserved skills: Evidence from a gender quota," CLEF Working Paper Series 53, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    14. Mohitosh Kejriwal & Xiaoxiao Li & Evan Totty, 2020. "Multidimensional skills and the returns to schooling: Evidence from an interactive fixed‐effects approach and a linked survey‐administrative data set," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(5), pages 548-566, August.
    15. Giuseppe Folloni & Giorgio Vittadini, 2010. "Human Capital Measurement: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 248-279, April.
    16. Germán Reyes, 2023. "Cognitive Endurance, Talent Selection, and the Labor Market Returns to Human Capital," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_490, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    17. Esperanza Vera-Toscano & Maria Cesira Urzi Brancati, 2020. "Towards an improved adult learning monitoring framework. Revisiting the available data and indicators," JRC Research Reports JRC119018, Joint Research Centre.
    18. repec:bcp:journl:v:6:y:2022:i:10:p:465-476 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Gervas Huxley & Mike W. Peacey, 2025. "Learning at university," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(1), pages 47-66, January.
    20. Germ'an Reyes, 2023. "Cognitive Endurance, Talent Selection, and the Labor Market Returns to Human Capital," Papers 2301.02575, arXiv.org.
    21. John A. List & Haruka Uchida, 2024. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? Toward an Understanding of Fade-out in Early Childhood Education Programs," NBER Working Papers 33027, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jecomi:v:10:y:2022:i:7:p:169-:d:863597. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.