Meritocracy and Economic Inequality

by Arrow, Kenneth J.; Bowles, Samuel; Durlauf, Steven N.

• ISBN13: 9780691004686
• ISBN10: 0691004684
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-04
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Most Americans strongly favor equality of opportunity if not outcome, but many are weary of poverty's seeming immunity to public policy. This helps to explain the recent attention paid to cultural and genetic explanations of persistent poverty, including claims that economic inequality is a function of intellectual ability, as well as more subtle depictions of the United States as a meritocracy where barriers to achievement are personal--either voluntary or inherited--rather than systemic. This volume of original essays by luminaries in the economic, social, and biological sciences, however, confirms mounting evidence that the connection between intelligence and inequality is surprisingly weak and demonstrates that targeted educational and economic reforms can reduce the income gap and improve the country's aggregate productivity and economic well-being. It also offers a novel agenda of equal access to valuable associations. Amartya Sen, John Roemer, Robert M. Hauser, Glenn Loury, Orley Ashenfelter, and others sift and analyze the latest arguments and quantitative findings on equality in order to explain how merit is and should be defined, how economic rewards are distributed, and how patterns of economic success persist across generations. Moving well beyond exploration, they draw specific conclusions that are bold yet empirically grounded, finding that schooling improves occupational success in ways unrelated to cognitive ability, that IQ is not a strong independent predictor of economic success, and that people's associations--their neighborhoods, working groups, and other social ties--significantly explain many of the poverty traps we observe. The optimistic message of this beautifully edited book is that important violations of equality of opportunity do exist but can be attenuated by policies that will serve the general economy. Policy makers will read with interest concrete suggestions for crafting economically beneficial anti-discrimination measures, enhancing educational and associational opportunity, and centering economic reforms in community-based institutions. Here is an example of some of our most brilliant social thinkers using the most advanced techniques that their disciplines have to offer to tackle an issue of great social importance.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	vii
Introduction	ix
Kenneth Arrow
Samuel Bowles
Steven Durlauf
PART ONE: MERIT, REWARD, AND OPPORTUNITY	3	(30)
Merit and Justice	5	(12)
Amartya Sen
Equality of Opportunity	17	(16)
John E. Roemer
PART TWO: THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF ``INTELLIGENCE''	33	(54)
IQ Trends over Time: Intelligence, Race, and Meritocracy	35	(26)
James R. Flynn
Genes, Culture, and Inequality	61	(26)
Marcus W. Feldman
Sarah P. Otto
Freddy B. Christiansen
PART THREE: SCHOOLING AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY	87	(180)
Schooling, Intelligence, and Income in America	89	(29)
Orley Ashenfelter
Cecilia Rouse
Does Schooling Raise Earnings by Making People Smarter?	118	(19)
Samuel Bowles
Herbert Gintis
A Reanalysis of The Bell Curve: Intelligence, Family Background, and Schooling	137	(42)
Sanders Korenman
Christopher Winship
Occupational Status, Education, and Social Mobility in the Meritocracy	179	(51)
Robert M. Hauser
John Robert Warren
Min-Hsiung Huang
Wendy Y. Carter
Understanding the Role of Cognitive Ability in Accounting for the Recent Rise in the Economic Return to Education	230	(37)
John Cawley
James Heckman
Lance Lochner
Edward Vytlacil
PART FOUR: POLICY OPTIONS	267	(74)
Inequality and Race: Models and Policy	269	(27)
Shelly J. Lundberg
Richard Startz
Conceptual Problems in the Enforcement of Anti-Discrimination Laws	296	(21)
Glenn Loury
Meritocracy, Redistribution, and the Size of the Pie	317	(24)
Roland Benabou
Index	341