The Importance of Non-cognitive Skills: Observations from Asian Educational Systems
2009/06/16
研討會日期 : 2009-06-16
時間 : 14:30
主講人 : 曹真睿助理教授
地點 : C103
演講者簡介 : 曹真睿教授為Ph.D. in Economics，Vanderbilt University (2008)。現為中央大學經濟系助理教授。其主要研究領域為貨幣理論、經濟發展與成長及勞動經濟學。
演講摘要 : Recent studies have emphasized the role of education for developing noncognitive skills. At the same time, several Asian countries have pursued educational reforms that encourage the acquisition of non-cognitive skills. To be specific, Taiwan (in 1994) and Thailand (in 2006) began to gradually deviate from the traditional entrance exam based admission systems which are based solely on cognitive abilities. Instead, admissions criteria have been broadened to include high school grades, recommendation letters, and records of participation in extracurricular activities. In light of these observations, this paper studies the optimal design of university-level educational systems. In particular, we consider two different admission policies. Under the first criterion, an entrance examination regime (EER), admissions are exclusively determined by a person’s cognitive skills. Alternatively, under a generalized admission regime (GAR), the criterion for admission depends on an individual’s overall abilities .a combination of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. As admissions policies affect individuals’ incentives, the structure of educational systems leads to different investment decisions. In an economy where only cognitive skills matter for production, an EER is efficient. However, if productivity also depends on non-cognitive skills, the GAR can weakly dominate an EER.
