Patience and the North-South Divide in Student Achievement in Italy and the United States
BIG-DATA-BASED ECONOMIC INSIGHTS
Key Messages
- Human capital theory recognizes that time preferences – patience – are important for skill investments
- We show how Facebook interests can be used to construct subnational measures of patience
- Differences in patience are closely related to regional student achievement in Italy and the United States
- They account for two-thirds of the achievement variation across Italian regions and one-third across US states
- The results lead to new perspectives on long-standing within-country disparities
Abstract
This article shows how Facebook interests can be used to construct subnational measures of patience (“the relative valuation of present versus future payoffs”). Differences in patience are closely related to regional student performance in Italy and the United States. The results provide new perspectives on long-standing differences between the countries.
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Citation
Eric A. Hanushek, Lavinia Kinne, Pietro Sancassani and Ludger Woessmann: “Patience and the North-South Divide in Student Achievement in Italy and the United States,” EconPol Forum 25 (3), CESifo, Munich, 2024.