Economists are increasingly focused on the importance of so-called “soft skills” for labor market success. The evidence is overwhelming that these skills — also called “non-cognitive skills” — are important drivers of success in school and in adult life. Yet the very term soft skills reveals our lack of understanding of what these skills are, how to measure them, and whether and how they can be developed. And the term “non-cognitive” is simply used to mean “not predicted by IQ or achievement tests.”
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