Working Paper: NBER ID: w24313
Authors: Achyuta Adhvaryu; Namrata Kala; Anant Nyshadham
Abstract: We evaluate the causal impacts of on-the-job soft skills training on the productivity, wages, and retention of female garment workers in India. The program increased women’s extraversion and communication, and spurred technical skill upgrading. Treated workers were 20 percent more productive than controls post-program. Wages rise very modestly with treatment (by 0.5 percent), with no differential turnover, suggesting that although soft skills raise workers’ marginal products, labor market frictions are large enough to create a substantial wedge between productivity and wages. Consistent with this, the net return to the firm was large: 258 percent eight months after program completion.
Keywords: soft skills; training; productivity; wages; retention
JEL Codes: J24; M53; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| on-the-job soft skills training (M53) | productivity (O49) |
| on-the-job soft skills training (M53) | productivity increase relative to control workers (J29) |
| on-the-job soft skills training (M53) | post-program wages (J31) |
| on-the-job soft skills training (M53) | turnover rates (J63) |
| on-the-job soft skills training (M53) | net return to the firm (L21) |
| on-the-job soft skills training (M53) | assignment to complex tasks (C78) |
| on-the-job soft skills training (M53) | self-assessed workplace quality (J29) |