How Employers Use Signals of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills at Labour Market Entry: Insights from Field Experiments

The role of different types of skills and signals in youth labor market integration

“…Similar to these previous studies, we examine average graduation grade. For employers, higher grades signal perseverance, and trainability potential, and are indirectly related to productivity (Di Stasio and Van de Werfhorst 2016; Protsch and Solga 2015;Weiss 1995). These signals are attractive for employers, as they benefit most from employees who are productive and require little training, saving additional training costs (Thurow 1976).…”

“…Our paper builds upon insights from existing research by addressing several unanswered questions. First, most previous empirical studies lack measures of job-specific skills on the individual level, because there simply is no such data available (see also Dieckhoff 2008;Heisig and Solga 2015;Protsch and Solga 2015). Barone and Van de Werfhorst (2011) measure specific cognitive skills in their study, but state that their "focus on work-specific cognitive abilities does not pay full tribute to the skills that are rewarded for reasons explained by human capital theory" (p. 488).…”

“…Heisig and Solga 2015), the average graduation grade (e.g. Protsch and Solga 2015), and the choice of a school-based versus work-based tracks (cross-nationally on macro-level, e.g. Andersen and Van de Werfhorst 2010).…”

Activating the most disadvantaged youth in Switzerland: Administratively too risky, politically too costly?

“…The literature has highlighted several factors that contribute to influence the chances to access dual‐VET systems. From an individual perspective, salient features are cognitive and soft‐skills, compulsory education class‐track, socio‐economic and migration background, nationality, informal networks, working virtues and gender (Camilleri‐Cassar, ; Di Stasio, ; Häfeli and Schellenberg, ; Hupka and Stalder, ; Liebig, Kohls and Krause, ; Meyer, ; Perriard, ; Protsch and Solga, ; Solga, ). The notion of disadvantage, however, remains intentionally loose, to better adapt it to the local and empirical realities.…”

The Signaling Value of Labor Market Programs

“…These signals may or may not have a direct relationship with the job but, in the eyes of employers, carry meaning. Employers seem to rely on both, cognitive and non-cognitive signals (Protsch & Solga, 2014). Examples of signals that are known to affect recruitment selection include education, nationality, skin color, age, family status, physical attractiveness, to name a few.…”