 42. Some Contributions of Economics to the Study of Personality 869
are much more similar to dropouts but in 
several cases are statistically significantly 
more likely  to engage in risky behaviors 
than other dropouts. On no outcome mea -
sure in Figure 42.7  are dropouts statistically 
significantly more likely to engage in risky 
behaviors compared to GED recipients. Fig -
ures 42.8a and 42.8b summarize these ado -lescent behaviors using a single factor and 
shows that unlike the cognitive summary 
measures, the distribution of the noncogni -
tive (personality) summary measure of GED 
recipients is much closer to that of dropouts 
than to that of high school graduates.
Figures 42.8a and 42.8b show the distri -
bution of a factor summarizing the diverse FIGURE 42.6. Cognitive ability by educational status: (a) Males, (b) Females. Source: Reproduced from 
Heckman et al. (2011), which uses data from the NLSY79. Note: The distributions represent cognitive 
ability factors estimated using a subset of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) 
and educational attainment as laid out in Hansen et al. (2004). The sample is restricted to the cross- 
sectional subsample for both males and females. Distributions show only those with no post-  secondary 
educational attainment. The cognitive ability factors are normalized by gender to be mean zero stan -
dard deviation one.
A
B