Big Five Personality Traits and Economic Outcomes

This study explores how an individual's choice of employment and education is influenced by their personality traits, specifically the Big Five. The research focuses on the individual's likelihood of employment, salary, chances of promotion, solutions in the field of higher education and directions of study. The study uses data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of the Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2016 and 2019 and probit and multiple linear regressions to analyze these relationships. The results show that personality traits do have an impact on an individual's employment and educational choices. All personality traits are significant for employment and wages, except extraversion. However, socio-demographic factors and workplace characteristics need to be taken into account when interpreting the results. Personality traits are insignificant for the likelihood of promotion. Agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness and neuroticism influence the desire to receive higher education and the fact of receiving it. All Big Five traits are important for choosing a field of study, but the results differ for different age groups and genders. The results of this study are generally consistent with the literature.