Making it right? Social norms, handwriting and human capital

Guber, Raphael (2019): Making it right? Social norms, handwriting and human capital. In: Labour Economics, Vol. 56: pp. 44-57

Abstract

Previous literature has found that, due to innate cognitive deficits, left-handers obtain less human capital and lower wages than right-handers. In this paper, I study the associations of forced right-hand writing of left-handed children ("switching") with later life outcomes. Using rich data from the German SOEP, I am able to distinguish between switched and non-switched left-handers. I find that switched left-handers perform equally well or even better in the labor market than right-handers. Only non-switched left-handers exhibit the deficits of left-handers found in earlier studies. I apply Gelbach's (2016) conditional decomposition to show that the observed differences in outcomes occur due to differential human capital accumulation, rather than cognitive or non-cognitive skills.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Economics
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• ISSN: 0927-5371
• Language: English