site.btaConscientiousness and Grit Are Most Lucrative Skills for Women in Bulgaria - World Bank Study

Conscientiousness and Grit Are Most Lucrative Skills for Women in Bulgaria - World Bank Study

Sofia, January 21 (BTA) - Socioemotional skills matter for earnings in Bulgaria, but the most lucrative skills differ by gender: for men having a growth mindset is associated with higher pay, for women it is higher working and learning style skills, a World Bank study of the skills for work in Bulgaria shows. It was presented Thursday by Victoria Levin, an economist with the World Bank, at a forum hosted by the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia.

The Bulgarian Longitudinal Inclusive Society Survey, BLISS, collected data on the cognitive and socioemotional skills of the adult population, aged 18-65. A working and learning style factor that is higher by 1 standard deviation for women is associated with earning 6 percent more. The association between the socioemotional skills involved in working and learning style (such as conscientiousness and grit) and earnings is aligned with the findings of studies in other countries.

For men, the more fixed the mindset, the lower the earnings, which suggests that individuals with a growth mindset earn a premium, the study shows.

Completed secondary education does not bring higher income than primary education. However, the premium for postsecondary education is substantial: with this qualification men earn 38 per cent more and women 47 percent more than is earned by those of their gender with less education. The shrinkage of the working-age population, coupled with rapid population aging, is causing dependency ratios to surge: for every 100 people of working age, by 2060 there will be about 53 aged 65 and over, up from 11 in that age group in 1960 and 27 in 2010, the World Bank report finds.

That is why Levin said it is important to study the various types of skills that lead to increasing labour productivity.

In the 2012 assessment of educational attainment (OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA), 15-year-olds in Bulgaria had the lowest scores of any EU country for reading ability and mathematics and were among the weakest performers in science (OECD 2014). About 39 percent of them are considered to be functionally illiterate - not able to understand and analyze what they read; and about 44 percent are considered functionally innumerate; this is the highest rate in Europe, and almost twice the OECD average.

The study concludes that Bulgaria needs to invest in increasing skills, including Roma as a priority target group.