Working Paper: NBER ID: w31690
Authors: Eric A. Hanushek; Lavinia Kinne; Pietro Sancassani; Ludger Woessmann
Abstract: Decisions to invest in human capital depend on people’s time preferences. We show that differences in patience are closely related to substantial subnational differences in educational achievement, leading to new perspectives on longstanding within-country disparities. We use social-media data – Facebook interests – to construct novel regional measures of patience within Italy and the United States. Patience is strongly positively associated with student achievement in both countries, accounting for two-thirds of the achievement variation across Italian regions and one-third across U.S. states. Results also hold for six other countries with more limited regional achievement data.
Keywords: patience; student achievement; human capital; regional analysis; Facebook interests
JEL Codes: I21; J24; Z10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| patience (Y60) | student achievement (I24) |
| regional patience (R22) | variation in student achievement in Italy (I24) |
| regional patience (R22) | variation in student achievement in U.S. (I24) |
| patience (Y60) | educational disparities (I24) |
| patience (Y60) | cumulative role in educational outcomes (I24) |