IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/77259.html

Schooling, Skills, and Labor Market Outcomes in Africa: Evidence from Ghana and Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Otchia, Christian

Abstract

Researchers have shown that there is a mutually reinforcing interaction between cognitive and socioemotional skills, and this combination explains the success in various aspects of life, such as employment, wage, and health status. This paper aims at understanding the interactions between cognitive skills and socioemotional skills in Africa. It also assesses the association of these skills with labor market outcomes, with a special focus on women and youth. To provide fine policy directions to inform decision-making and future research, this paper incorporates more relevant employment status in African labor market, such as high-skills occupation and education-job mismatch.

Suggested Citation

  • Otchia, Christian, 2017. "Schooling, Skills, and Labor Market Outcomes in Africa: Evidence from Ghana and Kenya," MPRA Paper 77259, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:77259
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/77259/2/skilldevelopment_policybrief03.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herbert Gintis & Samuel Bowles & Melissa Osborne, 2001. "Incentive-Enhancing Preferences: Personality, Behavior, and Earnings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 155-158, May.
    2. Eric A. Hanushek & Ludger Woessmann, 2008. "The Role of Cognitive Skills in Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(3), pages 607-668, September.
    3. 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.
    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. Elke Lüdemann, 2011. "Schooling and the Formation of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Outcomes," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 39, April.
    2. Glewwe, Paul & Song, Yang & Zou, Xianqiang, 2022. "Labor market outcomes, cognitive skills, and noncognitive skills in rural China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 294-311.
    3. Dahmann, Sarah C., 2017. "How does education improve cognitive skills? Instructional time versus timing of instruction," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 35-47.
    4. McGee, Andrew & McGee, Peter, 2016. "Search, effort, and locus of control," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 89-101.
    5. Girum Abebe & A Stefano Caria & Marcel Fafchamps & Paolo Falco & Simon Franklin & Simon Quinn, 2021. "Anonymity or Distance? Job Search and Labour Market Exclusion in a Growing African City [Endogenous Stratification in Randomized Experiments]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(3), pages 1279-1310.
    6. Vogl, Tom S., 2014. "Height, skills, and labor market outcomes in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 84-96.
    7. Girum Abebe & Stefano Caria & Marcel Fafchamps & Paolo Falco & Simon Franklin & Simon Quinn, 2016. "Curse of Anonymity or Tyranny of Distance? The Impacts of Job-Search Support in Urban Ethiopia," CSAE Working Paper Series 2016-10, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    8. David Dorn & Florian Schoner & Moritz Seebacher & Lisa Simon & Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Multidimensional Skills on LinkedIn Profiles: Measuring Human Capital and the Gender Skill Gap," Papers 2409.18638, arXiv.org, revised May 2025.
    9. Nikolov, Plamen & Jimi, Nusrat & Chang, Jerray, 2020. "The Importance of Cognitive Domains and the Returns to Schooling in South Africa: Evidence from Two Labor Surveys," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Gustavo Yamada & Pablo Lavado & Ana Paula Franco & Emilia Abusada, 2016. "First impressions matter for life: the contribution of skills for the firt job," Working Papers 16-13, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    11. Elizabeth King & Halsey Rogers, 2014. "Intelligence, Personality, and Creativity : Unleashing the Power of Intelligence and Personality Traits to Build a Creative and Innovative Economy," World Bank Publications - Reports 20662, The World Bank Group.
    12. De Paola, Maria & Skatova, Ekaterina, 2024. "Non-cognitive skills and social isolation in late childhood: An investigation of their impact on school performance in Italy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Katia Herrera-Sosa & Alexandria Valerio & Sebastian Monroy-Taborda & Dandan Chen, 2015. "Armenia Skills toward Employment and Productivity," World Bank Publications - Reports 25199, The World Bank Group.
    14. Piopiunik, Marc & Schwerdt, Guido & Simon, Lisa & Woessmann, Ludger, 2020. "Skills, signals, and employability: An experimental investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    15. Adaiah Lilenstein, 2020. "Better measures of progress: Developing reliable estimates of educational access and quality in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 13/2020, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    16. Kesavayuth, Dusanee & Ko, Kaung Myat & Zikos, Vasileios, 2018. "Locus of control and financial risk attitudes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 122-131.
    17. Emilia Bedyk & Jacek Liwiński, 2016. "The wage premium from parents’ investments in the education of their children in Poland," Working Papers 2016-14, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    18. Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Skills and Earnings: A Multidimensional Perspective on Human Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series 11428, CESifo.
    19. Gensowski, Miriam, 2018. "Personality, IQ, and lifetime earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 170-183.
    20. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal, 2017. "Cognitive, socioemotional, and behavioural returns to college quality," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-94, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J46 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Informal Labor Market

    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:pra:mprapa:77259. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.