Job ads often stress the importance of personal traits such as the ability to cope with stress, self-discipline, and social skills. Yet the empirical evidence in favor of the view that personal traits other than intelligence influence labor market outcomes is surprisingly weak. The researchers in this project argued that this is due to a lack of valid measures of personality. Typically, the previous literature has used personality measures based on self-reported questionnaires. In contrast, a measure of personality based on a personal interview by a psychologist was applied in this project.
Personality and Labor Market Outcomes
The researchers in this project used data from the Swedish military enlistment to study the importance of personality traits for wages, income and employment.
Project manager
Project participants
Ereik Grönqvist, IFAU
Roine Westman, Stockholm University