Journal article
The Predictive Power of Self-Control for Life Outcomes
DA Cobb-Clark, SC Dahmann, DA Kamhöfer, H Schildberg-Hörisch
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization | ELSEVIER | Published : 2022
Abstract
This study investigates the predictive power of self-control for individuals and their children using population representative data. We use the well-established Brief Self-Control Scale to demonstrate that people's trait self-control is highly predictive of their life outcomes. Higher self-control is associated with better health, education, and employment outcomes as well as greater financial and overall well-being. Importantly, self-control often adds explanatory power in addition to more frequently studied personality traits and economic preferences. The self-control of children is correlated with that of their parents, while higher parental self-control is also linked to fewer behaviora..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank the Editor, Daniela Puzzello, an Associate Editor, and two anonymous referees for many helpful suggestions which improved the paper considerably. We are grateful to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) for enabling us to introduce the Brief Self-Control Scale into the Innovation Sample of the Socio-Economic Panel. We especially thank David Richter for help with the implementation. For useful comments, we thank Lorenz Gotte, Paul Heidhues, Christian Michel, Muriel Niederle, and Matthias Pelster, as well as participants of the 2019 EEA conference in Manchester, the 2019 IAREP-SABE conference in Dublin, the 2019 NCBEE in Kiel, and the 2019 German Economic Association conference in Leipzig and seminar participants at DIW Berlin, Sydney, Dusseldorf, Paderborn, and Luneburg. This article is a shorter and substantially revised version of the original working paper "SelfControl: Determinants, Life Outcomes and Intergenerational Implications"(IZA DiscussionPaper 12488, July2019). Theauthors aregrateful forresearch support from the Australian Research Council (CE140100027, CE20 0100025, DP200100979). This paper uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Innovation Sample (doi:10.5684/soep.is.2018). Instructions for accessing the data can be found here: https://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/diw_01.c.44985.de/soep_cnef_access_procedures_2014.pdf.The authors make syntax files that allow replicating all results available upon request. The views expressed herein are solely those of the authors.