Interpersonal Styles and Labor Market Outcomes / Lex Borghans, Bas ter Weel, Bruce A. Weinberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Borghans, Lex.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

ter Weel, Bas.

Weinberg, Bruce A.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w12846.

NBER working paper series no. w12846

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.

Summary:

This paper develops a framework to understand the role of interpersonal interactions in the labor market including task assignment and wages. Effective interpersonal interactions involve caring, to establish cooperation, and at the same time directness, to communicate in an unambiguous way. The ability to perform these tasks varies with personality and the importance of these tasks varies across jobs. An assignment model shows that people are most productive in jobs that match their style and earn less when they have to shift to other jobs. An oversupply of one attribute relative to the other reduces wages for people who are better with the attribute in greater supply. We present evidence that youth sociability affects job assignment in adulthood. The returns to interpersonal interactions are consistent with the assignment model.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2007.