Individualism and the Formation of Human Capital
Katharina Hartinger, Sven Resnjanskij, Jens Ruhose, Simon Wiederhold
Journal of the European Economic Association,
forthcoming
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate about the economic effects of individualism. We establish that individualism leads to better educational and labor market outcomes. Using data from the largest international adult skill assessment, we identify the effects of individualism by exploiting variation between migrants at the origin country, origin language, and person level. Migrants from more individualistic cultures have higher cognitive skills and larger skill gains over time. They also invest more in their skills over the life-cycle, as they acquire more years of schooling and are more likely to participate in adult education activities. In fact, individualism is more important in explaining adult skill formation than any other cultural trait that has been emphasized in previous literature. In the labor market, more individualistic migrants earn higher wages and are less often unemployed. We show that our results cannot be explained by selective migration or omitted origin-country variables.
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Why Is the Roy-Borjas Model Unable to Predict International Migrant Selection on Education? Evidence from Urban and Rural Mexico
Stefan Leopold, Jens Ruhose, Simon Wiederhold
World Economy,
Vol. 48 (2),
2025
Abstract
The Roy-Borjas model predicts that international migrants are less educated than nonmigrants because the returns to education are generally higher in developing (migrant-sending) than in developed (migrant-receiving) countries. However, empirical evidence often shows the opposite. Using the case of Mexico-U.S. migration, we show that this inconsistency between predictions and empirical evidence can be resolved when the human capital of migrants is assessed using a two-dimensional measure of occupational skills rather than by educational attainment. Thus, focusing on a single skill dimension when investigating migrant selection can lead to misleading conclusions about the underlying economic incentives and behavioral models of migration.
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European Real Estate Index (EREI) 2025
Michael Koetter, Felix Noth, Fabian Woebbeking
IWH Technical Reports,
No. 1,
2025
Abstract
This Technical Report documents the construction and coverage of the IWH European Real Estate Index (EREI). Since 2018, we have used machine-learning methods to collect monthly listings of residential real estate available for sale or rent in up to 20 European countries. The Technical Report documents the cleaning and selection process and describes the data regarding coverage, moments, and frequencies to construct the EREI.
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IWH-DPE in a Nutshell
IWH-DPE in a Nutshell The IWH Doctoral Programme in Economics (IWH-DPE) is the unit that organises the education of doctoral students at the IWH in close cooperation with partner…
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Research Clusters
Three Research Clusters Each IWH research group is assigned to a topic-oriented research cluster. The clusters are not separate organisational units, but rather bundle the…
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Visualization
Visualization Below you can see a first application of the data visualization created using the CompNet Reduced Dataset. On the top of the graphs, there is a filter called “select…
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Harmonized MDI dataset - Visualization
Metadata Catalogue Search The tool below allows you to explore the data available in the MDI. It visually represents the coverage of a selected variable over time across different…
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Visualization
Visualization Below you can see a first application of the data visualization created using the CompNet Reduced Dataset. On the top of the graphs, there is a filter called “select…
See page
Harmonized MDI dataset - Visualization
Metadata Catalogue Search The tool below allows you to explore the data available in the MDI. It visually represents the coverage of a selected variable over time across different…
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Research Articles
Research Articles Explore cutting-edge research based on CompNet’s micro-aggregated firm-level data and related analytical tools. These articles cover empirical and theoretical…
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