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Soft Skills and Their Wage Returns: Overview of Empirical Literature

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  • Balcar Jiří

    (VSB - Technical University of Ostrava, Economic faculty, Sokolská třída 33, 701 21 Ostrava)

Abstract

Psychological traits, attitudes and soft skills represent factors whose effect on an individual’s wages has begun to be examined recently. Today, there is an extensive empirical body on wage returns to the first two factors, but still a relatively small one on wage returns to soft skills, such as communication, cooperation, leadership etc. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of empirical literature on wage returns to soft skills. It suggests that soft skills are connected with significant wage returns and contribute to closing the gender wage gap. The end of the paper focuses on a discussion on methodological approaches to measurement of soft skills and relevancy of their approximation by job characteristics (incl. suggestion of using tools of competency modelling for this purpose).

Suggested Citation

  • Balcar Jiří, 2014. "Soft Skills and Their Wage Returns: Overview of Empirical Literature," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 3-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:reoecp:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:13:n:1
    DOI: 10.2478/revecp-2014-0001
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Estrellado, Emmanuel & Charoensilp, Pimmada & Yamada, Shoko, 2023. "The effects of game-based soft skills training: A quasi-experiment with Ethiopian garment workers," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    2. Martin Kahanec & Mariola Pytliková, 2017. "The economic impact of east–west migration on the European Union," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 407-434, August.
    3. Leonardo Becchetti & Gianluigi Conzo, 2022. "The Gender Life Satisfaction/Depression Paradox," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 35-113, February.
    4. Efrat, Alon, 2022. "A significant improvement was found in the Emotional stability following the training. Participating in the training changed the way people associate personality traits with Interaction management," MPRA Paper 118558, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Alicja Grze?kowiak, 2020. "Soft skills and earnings: evidence from a nationwide survey in Poland," International Journal of Economic Sciences, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, vol. 9(1), pages 102-120, June.
    6. Hector L. Lavilles Jr & Ava Clare Marie O. Robles, 2017. "Teachers’ soft skills proficiency level and school performance of selected schools in Sultan Kudarat Division," Journal of Advances in Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Yi-Hsing Hsieh, vol. 3(1), pages 10-28.
    7. Grimes, Paul W. & Lopus, Jane S. & Amidjono, Dwi Sulistyorini, 2022. "Financial life-skills training and labor market outcomes in Indonesia," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    8. Giorgio Gnecco & Sara Landi & Massimo Riccaboni, 2024. "The emergence of social soft skill needs in the post COVID-19 era," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 647-680, February.
    9. Adam Dunn & Nan Maxwell & Dana Rotz & Megan Shoji, 2016. "Social Enterprises: Doing Good While Doing Business," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 50915e1a322342b8b71d64e78, Mathematica Policy Research.
    10. Ruzlan Md-Ali* & Fuziah Shaffie & Fahainis Mohd Yusof, 2018. "Soft Skills At Workplace: An Experienced Public University Educator’s Thoughts on Kemahiran Insaniah Competencies for Professional Development," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 768-775:6.
    11. Jiří Balcar, 2016. "Is it better to invest in hard or soft skills?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(4), pages 453-470, December.
    12. Sulca Contreras, Ronny Daniel, 2022. "Demanda de trabajadores con habilidades blandas y nivel de empleabilidad de egresados universitarios [Demand for workers with soft skills and level of employability of university graduates]," MPRA Paper 113695, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 May 2022.

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