Using the Young Lives longitudinal panel dataset on youth born in 1994 in Peru, this paper examines the development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills between the ages of 8 and 22.  The authors seek to understand the critical role that human capital development plays in the intergenerational transfer of poverty and inequality.  The authors show that socio-emotional skills can be divided into two distinct domains – social skills and task effectiveness skills. They found that individuals with higher task effectiveness are less likely to participate in risky behaviours such as smoking, taking drugs, and engaging with gangs.

Download the paper from the Journal of Human Resources or read the associated working paper.