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James Heckman: An Economist's Perspective on Education

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James Heckman: The 'Rate of Return' on Social Skills

04 min 56 sec

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Nobel laureate James Heckman links "soft skills" such as perseverance, attention, motivation, and self-confidence to "success in society at large." Heckman argues that investing in socio-cultural skills will provide more "economic and social return" than investing in social programs or infrastructure.
Strong Family Upbringing Key to Academic Success?

03 min 12 sec

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Economist James Heckman argues that public schooling has very little to do with increasing or decreasing educational gaps among American students.

"The major determinant of school performance ... is the family environment that supports the children in the school," he says.
James Heckman Warns of Rising US Dropout Rate

02 min 47 sec

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Economist and Nobel laureate James Heckman analyzes the growing high school dropout rate over the past 40 years and predicts "chilling" effects on American society if the trend continues.

Heckman links the "dramatic" slow down in the growth of skills to lower labor productivity, decreased wage growth and a weakening of American competitiveness in the global economy.
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01 hr 04 min 21 sec

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There are 4 comments on this program

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Previous FORAtv comments:

Andrew Atkin

Posted: 05.18.10, 05:14 PM

The speaker seems to be making a classic mistake. He's associating earnings with assumed productivity. He believes that if you earn, say, $60k then you are 2x as productive as someone earning $30k. This is not necessarily true at all. In a market-based economy wages are primarly controlled by supply to demand. Highly productive people are often paid poorly due to a market saturation of their services, from effects such as too much immigration too fast. Education can (and does) also function as a barrier-to-access (system) for certain jobs, which in turn lowers worker-supply for those jobs, which in turn creates *artificial* wage inflations - that is, it creates wage inflations that have nothing to do with the inherent value of the education nor the productivity of the educated individuals' labour. -I write about this in note 21 on blog page: http://andrewatkin.blogspot.com/2009...ion-notes.html I do not mean to discredit the tremendous importance of early intervention, but the problem with experts is that they too often lean on assumtpions to form their conclusions - assumptions which need to be more carefully tested.

rodrigrap

Posted: 08.04.09, 10:52 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Bob B At one point professor suggests that fostering “soft skills” such as perseverance, confidence and motivation form the early age will lead to rewarding career in the future. On the other hand, his “marshmallow test” example shows that ability of self-control or willingness to wait another ten minutes for a bigger prize are at the core of success. I thought that “motivation” and “self-control” are two notions that slightly contradict each other in the context of modern reality. Marshmallow test was first introduced in ( http://venturebeat.com/2007/08/23/the-marshmellow-test/ 1960); in the modern world waiting another 10 minutes for another marshmallow might as well count as a missed opportunity. The marshmallow test is a simply ilustration of a bigger point: non-cognitive abilities matter.

Andrew Siebert

Posted: 07.30.09, 03:13 AM

Interesting idea...that of "waiting another 10 minutes for another marshmallow" could mean a lost opportunity. Not only is this possibly more relevant in a rapidly changing modern world, but I would suggest that this is indeed the norm in the developing world, as in Latin America and many African countries. The idea assumes a certain level of societal and cultural stability, as well as a high level of trust in the person who promises the marshmallow. Is such a high level of trust in others' promises, the general expectation that such promises will be fulfilled still such a good idea in the long term, or a naive fantasy from the world of the 1950's? Just look at the loss of pensions and health care by today's retirees. Interesting idea... Quote: Originally Posted by Bob B At one point professor suggests that fostering “soft skills” such as perseverance, confidence and motivation form the early age will lead to rewarding career in the future. On the other hand, his “marshmallow test” example shows that ability of self-control or willingness to wait another ten minutes for a bigger prize are at the core of success. I thought that “motivation” and “self-control” are two notions that slightly contradict each other in the context of modern reality. Marshmallow test was first introduced in ( http://venturebeat.com/2007/08/23/the-marshmellow-test/ 1960); in the modern world waiting another 10 minutes for another marshmallow might as well count as a missed opportunity.

Bob B

Posted: 07.23.09, 11:23 AM

At one point professor suggests that fostering “soft skills” such as perseverance, confidence and motivation form the early age will lead to rewarding career in the future. On the other hand, his “marshmallow test” example shows that ability of self-control or willingness to wait another ten minutes for a bigger prize are at the core of success. I thought that “motivation” and “self-control” are two notions that slightly contradict each other in the context of modern reality. Marshmallow test was first introduced in ( http://venturebeat.com/2007/08/23/the-marshmellow-test/ 1960); in the modern world waiting another 10 minutes for another marshmallow might as well count as a missed opportunity.