Being Knowledgeable or Sociable?: Differences in Relative Importance of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills

This paper develops a model of college admissions that emphasizes their role as a human capital evaluation method. Given multiple dimensions of human capital, di¤erent pattens of human capital evaluation and develpment emerge as equilibria. These equilibria with a varying emphasis on di¤erent aspects of human capital can match an observed di¤erence in college admission patterns between East Asian countries and the U.S. The model has a macroeconomic implication about the relationship between measured human capital and economic performances. We demonstrate the support for this implication through cross-country regressions.