Project description
How personality traits influence career choices
What drives individual differences in educational choices and employment success? What are the barriers that hinder some population groups from pursuing a certain career? Inequalities in education and career outcomes between population groups and across gender and socioeconomic background have been documented. The ERC-funded CTSM will go deeper by incorporating insights from personality psychology into economics. Specifically, the project will introduce new measures for four promising traits, willingness to compete, ability to cope with time pressure, public speaking aversion and ability to multitask. Currently, the potential of these traits for explaining individual differences in career choices is under-researched.
Objective
Inequalities in study choices and career outcomes between population groups, including Inequalities in study choices and career outcomes between population groups, including differences across gender and socioeconomic background, are highly persistent. This hints at unobserved barriers that limit diversity and prevent people from selecting the careers they would be most productive in. As a society, this may keep us from having the best people in the most important positions. Our limited understanding of what drives individual differences in educational choices and labor market success prevents us from identifying such barriers.
My project builds on an ongoing effort to incorporate insights from personality psychology into economics. Past research indicates that personality traits (and other non-cognitive traits) have high potential for explaining career choices and outcomes. I will introduce new measures for four promising traits, willingness to compete, ability to cope with time pressure, public speaking aversion and ability to multitask. Time pressure, competition, public speaking and multitasking are hallmarks of high-level careers and individual ability to cope with these pressures is therefore a plausible determinant of career outcomes. These traits vary strongly across individuals, as evidenced by studies that document differences across gender, socio-economic background and educational achievement levels.
However, the potential of these traits for explaining individual differences in career choices is under-researched, in part because we do not yet know how to measure them properly in large samples. I will develop new measures for willingness to compete, ability to cope with time pressure, public speaking aversion and ability to multitask which can be implemented in large-scale survey panels. I will then collect large-scale data where these traits can be linked to a wide range of career outcomes to investigate how these traits shape individual careers.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
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