{"type":"script","doc_desc":{"producers":[{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","abbr":"DECDI","affiliation":"World Bank - Development Impact Department","role":"Verification and preparation of metadata"}],"prod_date":"2026-03-03","version":"1"},"project_desc":{"authoring_entity":[{"name":"Diego Angel-Urdinola","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"dangelurdinola@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Maurice Kugler","affiliation":"George Mason University","email":"mkugler@gmu.edu"},{"name":"Narae Lee","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"nlee3@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Angelo Gabrielle Fernandez Santos","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"asantos2@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Olzhas Zhorayev","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"ozhorayev@worldbank.org"}],"title_statement":{"title":"Reproducibility package for Labor Market Returns To Socio-Emotional Traits And The Impacts Of Training Programs: A Meta-Analysis","idno":"RR_WLD_2026_560"},"data_statement":"Some data is limited-access and has not been included in the reproducibility package. It will be made available to World Bank staff through the World Bank Development Data Hub in the future.\n","software":[{"name":"Stata","version":"18 MP"},{"name":"Python","version":"3.9"}],"scripts":[{"title":"Reproducibility package for Labor Market Returns To Socio-Emotional Traits And The Impacts Of Training Programs: A Meta-Analysis","date":"2026-03","notes":"Computational reproducibility verified by Development Impact (DECDI) Analytics team, World Bank.","instructions":"See README in reproducibility package.","file_name":"RR_WLD_2026_560","zip_package":"RR_WLD_2026_560.zip","dependencies":"Stata dependencies are listed in the ado folder."}],"repository_uri":[{"name":"Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank)","uri":"https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org"}],"production_date":"2026-03-03","abstract":"This paper synthesizes the growing evidence on the labor market returns to socio-emotional skills and the effectiveness of training programs. While existing studies document elevated returns to socio-emotional skills in the labor market, there is little consensus on which specific aspects of the skills drive these gains. Utilizing one of the established psychological measures, the Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality traits, we define relevant keywords for socio-emotional skills, web-scrape literature, and construct coefficients database on the returns and training impacts. DerSimonian and Laird random-effects estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in each of BFI is associated with a 1.4 to 3.1 percentage point increase in wages, with substantial heterogeneity across individual traits, demographic groups, and country income levels; among BFIs, \u2018disagreeableness\u2019 exhibits the highest wage returns (3.1 percentage points). Training programs improve BFI by up to 0.46 standard deviations (SD) overall, with larger effects for attitude-related traits such as openness (0.667 SD) and conscientiousness (0.400 SD). Although early childhood constitutes a critical period for cognitive skill formation, our evidence indicates that socio-emotional competencies remain markedly malleable in later developmental stages. Well-designed post-secondary interventions can still generate substantial gains.","geographic_units":[{"name":"World","code":"WLD"}],"keywords":[{"name":"Socio-Emotional Skills"},{"name":"Labor Market Returns"},{"name":"Skills Training"},{"name":"Big Five Inventory (Bfi)"},{"name":"Quantitative Meta-Analysis"}],"topics":[{"id":"I26","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Returns to Education","parent_id":"I2"},{"id":" J24","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Human Capital \u2022 Skills \u2022 Occupational Choice \u2022 Labor Productivity","parent_id":"J2"},{"id":" J31","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Wage Level and Structure \u2022 Wage Differentials","parent_id":"J3"}],"output":[{"type":"Working Paper","description":"Policy Research Working Papers (PRWP)","title":"Labor Market Returns To Socio-Emotional Traits And The Impacts Of Training Programs: A Meta-Analysis"}],"language":[{"name":"English","code":"EN"}],"technology_requirements":"Run time: ~ 5 minutes","disclaimer":"The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development\/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.","license":[{"name":"Modified BSD3","uri":"https:\/\/opensource.org\/license\/bsd-3-clause\/"}],"contacts":[{"name":"Diego Angel-Urdinola","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"dangelurdinola@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"reproducibility@worldbank.org"}],"technology_environment":"Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:\n\u2022 OS: Windows 11 Enterprise\n\u2022 Processor: INTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+ 2.80 GHz (4 processors)\n\u2022 Memory available: 32.0 GB","reproduction_instructions":"To reproduce the findings in this paper, a replicator must:\n1. **Secure Access to Data:** Access the datasets not included in the package. See subsection Datasets for more details.\n2. **Download and Place Data:** Once the data is accessed, users should place it in the appropriate folder.\n3. **Run the Package:** After placing the data in the folder,  replicate and activate the environment in the file \"environment.text\" included in the reproducibility package. Follow instructions in the README to run the code. \n\nSince all the data is not included, the package includes the results produced by replicators. These files can be used to review the results presented in the paper. ","datasets":[{"access_type":"Data is forthcoming in the World Bank Development Data Hub.","note":"Author compiled datasets.The Data_clean.dta file contains harmonized wage-return estimates for socio-emotional and cognitive skills and is used for the wage-returns meta-analysis. The Training_data_clean.xlsx file contains harmonized meta-analysis results on socio-emotional skill training impacts and is used for the training-impact meta-analysis. More details can be found in the Appendix of the paper. \nFile location: Data\/\n","name":"Socio-Emotional Skill Returns and Training Impacts Dataset","citation":"Diego Angel-Urdinola, Maurice Kugler, Narae Lee, Angelo Santos, and Olzhas Zhorayev.\u00a02026. \"Socio-Emotional Skill Returns and Training Impacts\" [dataset]. Forthcoming on World Bank Development Data Hub. Accessed December 2025."}]},"tags":[{"tag":"DOI"},{"tag":"Forthcoming Data"},{"tag":"Open Code"}],"schematype":"script"}