Article Gold Open Access 2025

Students’ grit and their post-compulsory educational choices and trajectories: evidence from Switzerland

AJ
Albiez, Janine
 SM
Strazzeri, Maurizio
 WS
Wolter, Stefan C.
Education Economics
Journal
Abstract

We examine how the personality trait grit relates to post-compulsory educational choices using survey data linked to register data. Exploiting variation in self-reported grit within a cohort of students finishing compulsory school, we find that higher grit is associated with a higher likelihood of starting a vocational education over general education. This association is robust to cognitive skill measures and other background characteristics. Using novel data on skill requirements of vocational training occupations, we find that grittier vocational education students sort into math-intensive occupations. We find no evidence that grit reduces dropout rates in post-compulsory education. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

non-cognitive skills Personality traits educational choices grit oster bounds

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education, Aarau, Switzerland, Department of Economics, University of Bern, Bern, BE, Switzerland, CESifo GmbH, Munich, Bayern, Germany, IZA - Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education, Aarau, Switzerland
Department of Social Work, Berner Fachhochschule, Bern, BE, Switzerland
Funding & Acknowledgements
Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation, SBFI
See: https://www.anforderungsprofile.ch . This website is administrated by the Swiss Trade Association and the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education and partially financed by the Swiss Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation.
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