Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16915
Authors: Elisa Giannone; Giorgia Barboni; Karmini Sharma
Abstract: Defining metrics for assessing soft skills has long been an unresolved issue for socialscientists. We develop a new methodology to study and measure a specific soft skill,creativity, by combining mixed-method data collections with statistical analysis. Wedraw close-ended questions on creativity from the management literature. We also designa novel set of open-ended questions on creativity. We administer both sets of questionsto 137 Indian women in December 2020. After using qualitative coding methods to scoreeach woman’s creativity, we cross-validate the two sets of questions and find positivecorrelation. We then apply this methodology to study how the pandemic has affectedcreativity. We find that women’s creativity increased during the Covid-19 pandemic,and that increases in creativity are associated with better ex-ante social connectedness.Our approach of combining quantitative questions with coded qualitative interviews canbe adapted to design survey modules to measure other soft skills.
Keywords: creativity; soft skills; mixed-methods; pandemics; social connectedness; India
JEL Codes: O11; I32; D63
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| higher quality of social connectedness (I31) | increased creativity (O36) |
| negative shocks to spouses' jobs (J12) | increased creativity (O36) |
| social networks (Z13) | increased creativity (O36) |