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Demand for Personality Traits, Tasks, and Sorting

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  • Vera Brencic

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

  • Andrew McGee

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

Abstract

In job ads, employers express demand for personality traits when seeking workers to perform tasks that can be completed with different behaviors (e.g., communication, problem-solving) but not when seeking workers to perform tasks involving narrowly prescribed sets of behaviors such as routine and mathematics tasks. For many tasks, employers appear to demand narrower personality traits than those measured at the Big Five factor level. The job ads also exhibit substantial heterogeneity within occupations in the tasks mentioned. Workers may thus sort based on personality-derived comparative advantages in tasks into jobs rather than occupations. In the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we confirm that personality sorting based on tasks occurs at both the occupation and job levels. In this sample, however, there is little evidence of task-specific wage returns to personality traits, which would influence the supply of traits to jobs with particular tasks. This may explain why personality sorting based on tasks in the sample is very limited in spite of the correlations between tasks and employers’ demands for traits.

Suggested Citation

  • Vera Brencic & Andrew McGee, 2023. "Demand for Personality Traits, Tasks, and Sorting," Working Papers 2023-13, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:albaec:2023_013
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew McGee & Peter McGee, 2024. "Whoever you want me to be: Personality and incentives," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(3), pages 1268-1291, July.
    2. Vera Brencic & Andrew McGee, 2023. "Employers’ Demand for Personality Traits and Provision of Incentives," Working Papers 2023-14, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

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