Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers

This paper documents the positive link between the noncognitive skills of women farmers and the adoption of a cash crop. The context is Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, where the majority of rural households practice subsistence f...

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Main Authors:	Montalvao, Joao, Frese, Michael, Goldstein, Markus, Kilic, Talip
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	NONCOGNITIVE SKILLS PERSONALITY AGRIBUSINESS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION EMPOWERMENT AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND AGRICULTURE
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/938611496941808624/Soft-skills-for-hard-constraints-evidence-from-high-achieving-female-farmers http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27295

id	okr-10986-27295
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-272952021-06-14T10:11:54Z Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers Montalvao, Joao Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Kilic, Talip NONCOGNITIVE SKILLS PERSONALITY AGRIBUSINESS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION EMPOWERMENT AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND AGRICULTURE This paper documents the positive link between the noncognitive skills of women farmers and the adoption of a cash crop. The context is Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, where the majority of rural households practice subsistence farming. The analysis finds that a one standard deviation increase in noncognitive ability related to perseverance is associated with a five percentage point (or 33 percent) increase in the probability of adoption of the main cash crop. This link is not explained by differences across women in education and cognitive skills. It is also not explained by the fact that women with higher noncognitive ability tend to be married to husbands of higher noncognitive ability and education. The effect of female noncognitive skills on adoption is concentrated in patrilocal communities, where women face greater adversity and thus where it would be expected that the returns to such skills would be highest. One main channel through which noncognitive skills seem to work is through the use of productive inputs, including higher levels of labor, fertilizer, and agricultural advice services. 2017-06-21T17:23:01Z 2017-06-21T17:23:01Z 2017-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/938611496941808624/Soft-skills-for-hard-constraints-evidence-from-high-achieving-female-farmers http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27295 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8095 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Malawi
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	NONCOGNITIVE SKILLS PERSONALITY AGRIBUSINESS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION EMPOWERMENT AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND AGRICULTURE
spellingShingle	NONCOGNITIVE SKILLS PERSONALITY AGRIBUSINESS TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION EMPOWERMENT AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND AGRICULTURE Montalvao, Joao Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Kilic, Talip Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers
geographic_facet	Africa Malawi
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8095
description	This paper documents the positive link between the noncognitive skills of women farmers and the adoption of a cash crop. The context is Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, where the majority of rural households practice subsistence farming. The analysis finds that a one standard deviation increase in noncognitive ability related to perseverance is associated with a five percentage point (or 33 percent) increase in the probability of adoption of the main cash crop. This link is not explained by differences across women in education and cognitive skills. It is also not explained by the fact that women with higher noncognitive ability tend to be married to husbands of higher noncognitive ability and education. The effect of female noncognitive skills on adoption is concentrated in patrilocal communities, where women face greater adversity and thus where it would be expected that the returns to such skills would be highest. One main channel through which noncognitive skills seem to work is through the use of productive inputs, including higher levels of labor, fertilizer, and agricultural advice services.
format	Working Paper
author	Montalvao, Joao Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Kilic, Talip
author_facet	Montalvao, Joao Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Kilic, Talip
author_sort	Montalvao, Joao
title	Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers
title_short	Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers
title_full	Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers
title_fullStr	Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers
title_full_unstemmed	Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers
title_sort	soft skills for hard constraints : evidence from high-achieving female farmers
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/938611496941808624/Soft-skills-for-hard-constraints-evidence-from-high-achieving-female-farmers http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27295
_version_	1764464133323882496

Soft Skills for Hard Constraints : Evidence from High-Achieving Female Farmers

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