Measuring and Fostering Non-Cognitive Skills in Adolescence: Evidence from Chicago Public Schools and the OneGoal Program

Recent evidence has established that non-cognitive skills (e.g., persistence and selfcontrol) are valuable in the labor market and are malleable throughout adolescence. Some recent high school interventions have been developed to foster these skills, but there is little evidence on whether they are effective. Using administrative data, we apply two methods to evaluate an intervention called OneGoal, which attempts to help disadvantaged students attend and complete college in part by teaching non-cognitive skills. First, we compare the outcomes of participants and non-participants with similar pre-program cognitive and non-cognitive skills. In doing so, we develop and validate a measure of non-cognitive skill that is based on readily available data and rivals standard measures of cognitive skill in predicting educational attainment. Second, we use an instrumental variable difference-in-difference approach that exploits the fact that OneGoal was introduced into different schools at different times. We estimate that OneGoal improves academic indicators, increases college enrollment by 10–20 percentage points, and reduces arrest rates by 5 percentage points for males. We demonstrate that improvements in non-cognitive skill account for 15–30 percent of the treatment effects

Appendix 4: A Guide to Understanding State Child Care Subsidy Programs Through Analysis of Public and Non-public Use Datasets

This guide has been developed to assist researchers in using public and non-public use U.S. Census Bureau data as well as public and non-public use state administrative data—both separately and in combinations—to analyze state-specific child care subsidy take-up and employment of child care subsidy recipients

Financiamiento de la buhonería en Caracas

Este trabajo explora la relación entre los activos de un vendedor callejero (buhonero), el ingreso generado, el capital financiero, el capital humano y las estrategias financieras utilizadas. Los re-sultados muestran que los buhoneros se financian tanto a través de fuentes formales como in-formales de crédito y que a medida que la misma es más formal, menor es el nivel de interés a redituar. Asimismo se encontró que a mayor trabajo, mayor es el acceso al crédito, que éste no limita los niveles de ingreso y que estos se potencian con el tamaño de la familia. La educación no evidencia efectos mesurables en el ingreso de los buhoneros, pero el capital social, las redes de amigos y contactos relevantes incrementan los niveles de ingreso. El estudio muestra que la principal restricción para mayores ganancias en el sector informal no es el costo del capital sino los costos transaccionales involucrados en el acceso al crédito y el desempeño de la actividad de buhonería. Los elementos encontrados pueden apoyar el diseño de políticas de desarrollo con miras a satisfacer las necesidades reales de estos empresarios emergentes