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How learning a musical instrument affects the development of skills
ARTICLE

, , German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Germany

Economics of Education Review Volume 44, Number 1, ISSN 0272-7757 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

Despite numerous studies on skill development, we know little about the effects of extracurricular music activities on cognitive and non-cognitive skills. This study examines how music training during childhood and youth affects the development of cognitive skills, school grades, personality, time use and ambition using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our findings suggest that adolescents with music training have better school grades, are more conscientious, open and ambitious. These effects are stronger among adolescents from lower socio-economic status. In order to address the non-random selection into playing music, we take into account detailed information on the child and its parents, which may determine both the decision to pursue music lessons and educational outcomes. While lacking truly exogenous variations in music activities, our results are robust to a large range of sensitivity tests. We thereby approach causality better than previous observational studies.

Citation

Hille, A. & Schupp, J. (2015). How learning a musical instrument affects the development of skills. Economics of Education Review, 44(1), 56-82. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from Economics of Education Review on March 1, 2019. Economics of Education Review is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2014.10.007

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