Inequality in Personality over the Life Cycle

Arbeitspapier

We describe gender and socioeconomic inequalities in the Big Five personality traits over the life cycle, using a facet-level inventory linked to administrative data. We estimate life-cycle profiles non-parametrically and test for cohort and sample-selection effects. We discuss the economic implications of the following findings: Women of all ages score more highly than men on all personality traits, including three that are positively associated with wages; Individuals with high own or parental education have more favorable traits except Conscientiousness; Over the life cycle, gender and socioeconomic gaps widen in Openness and shrink in Neuroticism, a trait associated with worse outcomes.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13378

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Education and Inequality ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
• Subject: inequality ; socio-emotional skills ; personality traits ; Big Five facets ; life cycle dynamics ; gender gap ; intergenerational transmission

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gensowski, Miriam ; Gørtz, Mette ; Schurer, Stefanie
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/223820
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET