Internal Control Beliefs

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In the economics context, there are also empirical studies examining the influence of control beliefs on some economic behaviors such as job search and internal migration.
Caliendo, Cobb-Clark, and Uhlendorff (2010) employ data from the IZA Evaluation Data Set to test the relationship between locus of control and job search behaviors of newly-unemployed individuals in Germany. They find that people with more internal attitudes search more intensively and have higher reservation wages. Estimation results demonstrate that search intensity has a high impact upon the perceived likelihood of reemployment and this impact is stronger for individuals with more internal locus of control. It is also verified that internal control beliefs are associated …show more content…

Compared to those with external attitudes, individuals with medium or internal locus of control are less likely to be low-paid or unemployed. Schnitzlein and Stephani (2013) also find that internal control beliefs have influence on the labor market processes at the low-wage margin and can significantly facilitate escaping from the unfavorable employment status.
Semykina and Linz (2010) empirically examine gender inequalities in earnings in Russia, Armenia, and Kazakhstan and investigate whether personality traits contribute to explain the gender pay gap. Employees with internal locus of control are more likely to earn higher earnings, and the pay gap between the most internal and the most external employees reaches to about 70 percent. Locus of control explains gender differences in wages better than education and other conventional human capital …show more content…

(2012) investigate the relationship between economic preference and the individuality based on three datasets. Preference is measured by risk preference, time preference, trust, and social preference including reciprocity and altruism, while personality measures include the big five and locus of control. Becker et al. (2012) find an overall linear but weak association between economic preference and personality traits. Utilizing data from the GSOEP, they verify that economic preference and personality traits have significant explanatory power to a variety of life outcomes. After incorporating preference and personality characteristics, the explanatory power of the model to the heterogeneity in life outcomes is improved. They conclude that economic preference and personality characteristics are complementary in explaining differences in behaviors and life