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About the Author(s)

Deming

David J. Deming is a research associate in the NBER's Program on Education and Program on Children. He is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the director of the Inequality and Social Policy Program at Harvard, and a co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. Deming earned his B.S. from The Ohio State University in 2002, his Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005, and his Ph.D. in public policy from the Kennedy School in 2010. He was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon prior to joining the Harvard faculty.

Deming's research focuses broadly on the economics of skill development, education, and the labor market. He received the Early Career Award from the Association for Education Finance and Policy and was named a William T. Grant Scholar in 2013.

Endnotes

1. M. Almlund, A. Duckworth, J. Heckman, and T. Kautz, "Personality Psychology and Economics," NBER Working Paper 16822, February 2011, and in E. Hanushek, S. Machin, and L. Woessmann, eds., Handbook of the Economics of Education, Vol. 4., Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier, 2011, pp. 1–181; L. Borghans, B. Golsteyn, J. Heckman, and J. Humphries, "Identification Problems in Personality Psychology," NBER Working Paper 16917, March 2011, and Personality and Individual Differences, 51(3), 2011, pp. 315–20; J. Heckman and T. Kautz, "Hard Evidence on Soft Skills," NBER Working Paper 18121, June 2012, and Labour Economics, 19(4), 2012, pp. 451–64.   Go to ⤴︎
2. J. Casner-Lotto and L. Barrington, "Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers' Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce," ERIC, 2006; C. Jerald, "Defining a 21st Century Education," The Center for Public Education, July 2009.   Go to ⤴︎
3. "Job Outlook 2015," National Association of Colleges and Employers, November 2014.   Go to ⤴︎
4. R. Murnane, J. Willett, and F. Levy, "The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination," NBER Working Paper 5076, March 1995, and The Review of Economics and Statistics, 77(2), 1995, pp. 251–66; D. Neal and W. Johnson, "The Role of Premarket Factors in Black-White Wage Differences," Journal of Political Economy, 104(5), 1996, pp. 869–95; C. Taber, "The Rising College Premium in the Eighties: Return to College or Return to Unobserved Ability?," The Review of Economic Studies, 68(3), 2001, pp. 665–91.   Go to ⤴︎
5. D. Autor, F. Levy, and R. Murnane, "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computer-Skill Complementarity and Computer-Labor Substitution on Two Floors of a Large Bank," NBER Working Paper 7890, September 2000, and published as "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55(3), 2002, pp. 432–47; E. Brynjolfsson and A. McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014; A. Akerman, I. Gaarder, and M. Mogstad, "The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet," NBER Working Paper 20826, January 2015, and The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(4), 2015, pp. 1781–824.   Go to ⤴︎
6. G. Castex and E. Dechter, "The Changing Roles of Education and Ability in Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, 32(4), 2014, pp. 685–710.   Go to ⤴︎
7. D. Neal and W. Johnson, "The Role of Premarket Factors in Black-White Wage Differences," The Journal of Political Economy, 104(5), 1996, pp. 869–95; J. Altonji and C. Pierret, "Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(1), 2001, pp. 313–50; G. Castex and E. Dechter, "The Changing Roles of Education and Ability in Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, 32(4), 2014, pp. 685–710.   Go to ⤴︎
8. D. Deming, "The Growing Importance of Social Skills," NBER Working Paper 21473, June 2017, and The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(4), 2017, pp. 1593–640.   Go to ⤴︎
9. P. Beaudry, D. Green, and B. Sand, "The Declining Fortunes of the Young Since 2000," The American Economic Review, 104(5), 2014, pp. 381–6.   Go to ⤴︎
10. A. Edmondson, Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.   Go to ⤴︎
11. D. Autor, "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3), 2015, pp. 3–30.   Go to ⤴︎
12. D. Autor, F. Levy, and R. Murnane, "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computer-Skill Complementarity and Computer-Labor Substitution on Two Floors of a Large Bank," NBER Working Paper 7890, September 2000, and published as "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55(3), 2002, pp. 432–47; T. Bresnahan, E. Brynjolfsson, and L. Hitt, "Information Technology, Workplace Organization, and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence," NBER Working Paper 7136, May 1999, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(1), 2002, pp. 339–76; A. Bartel, C. Ichniowski, and K. Shaw, "How Does Information Technology Affect Productivity? Plant-Level Comparisons of Product Innovation, Process Improvement, and Worker Skills," NBER Working Paper 11773, November 2005, and The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(4), 2007, pp. 1721–58.   Go to ⤴︎
13. T. Bresnahan, "Computerisation and Wage Dispersion: An Analytical Reinterpretation," The Economic Journal, 109(456), 1999, pp. 390–415; A. Lindbeck and D. Snower, "Multitask Learning and the Reorganization of Work: From Tayloristic to Holistic Organization," Journal of Labor Economics, 18(3), 2000, pp. 353–76; E. Caroli and J. Van Reenen, "Skill-Biased Organizational Change? Evidence from A Panel of British and French Establishments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(4), 2001, pp. 1449–92; N. Bloom and J. Van Reenen, "Human Resource Management and Productivity," NBER Working Paper 16019, May 2010, and in D. Card, O. Ashenfelter, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4B, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier, 2011, pp. 1697–767.   Go to ⤴︎
14. D. Premack and G. Woodruff, "Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?" Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1(04), 1978, pp. 515–26; S. Baron-Cohen, "Theory of Mind and Autism: A Fifteen Year Review," in S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, and D. Cohen, eds., Understanding Other Minds: Perspectives from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 3–20; C. Camerer, G. Loewenstein, and D. Prelec, "Neuroeconomics: How Neuroscience Can Inform Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, 43(1), 2005, pp. 9–64. Go to ⤴︎
15. D. Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, London: G. Bell and Sons, 1891.   Go to ⤴︎
16. The model is isomorphic to the two-country, continuum of goods model in R. Dornbusch, S. Fischer, and P. Samuelson, "Comparative Advantage, Trade, and Payments in a Ricardian Model with a Continuum of Goods," The American Economic Review, 67(5), 1977, pp. 823–39, with social skills acting as (inverse) "iceberg" trade costs. See D. Deming, "The Growing Importance of Social Skills," NBER Working Paper 21473, June 2017, and The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(4), 2017, pp. 1593–640, for details.   Go to ⤴︎
17. J. Heckman, J. Stixrud, and S. Urzua, "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior," NBER Working Paper 12006, February 2006, and Journal of Labor Economics, 24(3), 2006, pp. 411–82; T. Dee and M. West, "The Non-cognitive Returns to Class Size," NBER Working Paper 13994, May 2008, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 33(1), 2011, pp. 23–46; R. Akee, E. Simeonova, E. Jane Costello, and W. Copeland, "How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors," NBER Working Paper 21562, September 2015; J. Heckman and T. Kautz, "Hard Evidence on Soft Skills," NBER Working Paper 18121, June 2012, and Labour Economics, 19(4), 2012, pp. 451–64; C. K. Jackson, "What Do Test Scores Miss? The Importance of Teacher Effects on Non-Test Score Outcomes," NBER Working Paper 22226, November 2016, and forthcoming in Journal of Political Economy.   Go to ⤴︎
18. D. Deming, "Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(3), 2009, pp. 111–34; R. Chetty, J. Friedman, N. Hilger, E. Saez, D. Whitmore Schanzenbach, and D. Yagan, "How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence From Project STAR," NBER Working Paper 16381, December 2011, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(4), 2011, pp. 1593–660.   Go to ⤴︎
19. See O. John and S. Srivastava, "The Big Five Trait Taxonomy: History, Measurement, and Theoretical Perspectives," in L. Pervin, O. John, eds., Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, New York: The Guilford Press, 1999, pp. 102–38 for an overview and history of the Big Five.   Go to ⤴︎
20. J. Heckman and T. Kautz, "Hard Evidence on Soft Skills," NBER Working Paper 18121, June 2012, and Labour Economics, 19(4), 2012, pp. 451–64.   Go to ⤴︎
21. D. Schmitt, J. Allik, R. McCrae, and V. Benet-Martinez, "The Geographic Distribution of Big Five Personality Traits: Patterns and Profiles of Human Self-Description Across 56 Nations," Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 2007, pp. 173–212.   Go to ⤴︎
22. D. Schmitt, J. Allik, R. McCrae, and V. Benet-Martinez, "The Geographic Distribution of Big Five Personality Traits: Patterns and Profiles of Human Self-Description Across 56 Nations," Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 2007, pp. 173–212.   Go to ⤴︎
23. M. West, M. Kraft, A. Finn, R. Martin, A. Duckworth, C. Gabrieli, and J. Gabrieli, "Promise and Paradox: Measuring Students' Non-Cognitive Skills and the Impact of Schooling," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(1), 2016, pp. 148–70.   Go to ⤴︎
24. M. West, M. Kraft, A. Finn, R. Martin, A. Duckworth, C. Gabrieli, and J. Gabrieli, "Promise and Paradox: Measuring Students' Non-Cognitive Skills and the Impact of Schooling," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(1), 2016, pp. 148–170.   Go to ⤴︎
25. T. Kautz, J. Heckman, R. Diris, B. ter Weel, and L. Borghans, "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success," NBER Working Paper 20749, September 2017, and OECD, 2015. Go to ⤴︎
26. S. Lundberg, "Non-Cognitive Skills as Human Capital," 2017, University of California, Santa Barbara; prepared for the NBER/CRIW Conference on Education, Skills, and Technical Change, October 2015.   Go to ⤴︎
27. T. Kautz, J. Heckman, R. Diris, B. ter Weel, and L. Borghans, "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success," NBER Working Paper 20749, September 2017, and OECD, 2015 includes a careful discussion of the identification issues when using observed behavior to measure soft skills.   Go to ⤴︎
28. S. Baron-Cohen, S. Wheelwright, J. Hill, Y. Raste, and I. Plumb, "The 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' Test Revised Version: A Study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism," Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42(2), 2001, pp. 241–51. Go to ⤴︎

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