Socioemotional Skills, Education, and Health-Related Outcomes of High-Ability Individuals

43 Pages Posted: 27 Dec 2017

See all articles by Peter A. Savelyev

Peter A. Savelyev

Virginia Commonwealth University - School of Business - Department of Economics

Kegon Tan

University of Wisconsin - Madison - Department of Economics; University of Wisconsin - Madison - Institute for Research on Poverty

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Abstract

We use the high IQ Terman sample to estimate relationships between education, socioemotional skills, and health-related outcomes that include health behaviors, lifestyles, and health measures across the lifecycle. By both focusing on a high IQ sample and controlling for IQ in regression models, we mitigate ability bias due to cognitive skill. In addition, we control for detailed personality measures to account for socioemotional skills. We model skills using factor analysis to address measurement error and adopt a powerful stepdown procedure to account for multiple hypothesis testing. We find that among high IQ subjects, education is linked to better health-related outcomes, in contrast to previous evidence. Conscientiousness, Openness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism are linked to various health-related outcomes across the lifecycle. Furthermore, we find that accounting for a comprehensive set of skills, measurement error, and multiple hypothesis testing not only provides greater confidence in several established relationships but also generates novel results.

Keywords: college education, Big Five personality taxonomy, health behavior, lifestyle, health

JEL Classification: I12, J24

Suggested Citation

Savelyev, Peter A. and Tan, Kegon, Socioemotional Skills, Education, and Health-Related Outcomes of High-Ability Individuals. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11213, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3092557 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3092557

Peter A. Savelyev (Contact Author)

Virginia Commonwealth University - School of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

Box 844000
Richmond, VA 23284-4000
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.petersavelyev.com/

Kegon Tan

University of Wisconsin - Madison - Department of Economics ( email )

1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
United States

University of Wisconsin - Madison - Institute for Research on Poverty

1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
United States

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