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  • May 2020
  • Article
  • Quarterly Journal of Economics

Negotiating a Better Future: How Interpersonal Skills Facilitate Inter-Generational Investment

By: Nava Ashraf, Natalie Bau, Corinne Low and Kathleen McGinn
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Abstract

Using a randomized control trial, we examine whether offering adolescent girls nonmaterial resources—specifically, negotiation skills—can improve educational outcomes in a low-income country. In so doing, we provide the first evidence on the effects of an intervention that increased noncognitive, interpersonal skills during adolescence. Long-run administrative data shows that negotiation training significantly improved educational outcomes over the next three years. The training had greater effects than two alternative treatments (offering girls a safe physical space with female mentors and offering girls information about the returns to education), suggesting that negotiation skills themselves drive the effect. Further evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment, which simulates parents’ educational investment decisions, and a midline survey suggests that negotiation skills improved girls’ outcomes by moving households’ human capital investments closer to the efficient frontier. This is consistent with an incomplete contracting model, where negotiation allows daughters to strategically cooperate with parents.

Keywords

Negotiation; Competency and Skills; Training; Age; Gender; Education; Investment; Outcome or Result; Developing Countries and Economies

Citation

Ashraf, Nava, Natalie Bau, Corinne Low, and Kathleen McGinn. "Negotiating a Better Future: How Interpersonal Skills Facilitate Inter-Generational Investment." Quarterly Journal of Economics 135, no. 2 (May 2020): 1095–1151.
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About The Author

Kathleen L. McGinn

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

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    Teaching Note for Endesa Chile: Raising the Ralco Dam & Río Curicó: A Six-party Negotiation Exercise

    By: Julian Zlatev, Kathleen McGinn, Katherine Chen and Rachel Drapper
    • January 2022
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    Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel

    By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah Kolb and Katherine Chen
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    Francoise Brougher

    By: Edward H. Chang, Nour Kteily and Kathleen McGinn
More from the Authors
  • Teaching Note for Endesa Chile: Raising the Ralco Dam & Río Curicó: A Six-party Negotiation Exercise By: Julian Zlatev, Kathleen McGinn, Katherine Chen and Rachel Drapper
  • Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah Kolb and Katherine Chen
  • Francoise Brougher By: Edward H. Chang, Nour Kteily and Kathleen McGinn
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