Meritocracy and Economic InequalityKenneth Arrow, Samuel Bowles, Steven N. Durlauf 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. |
Contents
Merit and Justice | 5 |
Equality of Opportunity | 17 |
THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF INTELLIGENCE | 33 |
IQ Trends over Time Intelligence Race and Meritocracy | 35 |
Genes Culture and Inequality | 61 |
SCHOOLING AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY | 87 |
Schooling Intelligence and Income in America | 89 |
Does Schooling Raise Earnings by Making People Smarter? | 118 |
Occupational Status Education and Social Mobility in the Meritocracy | 179 |
Understanding the Role of Cognitive Ability in Accounting for the Recent Rise in the Economic Return to Education | 230 |
POLICY OPTIONS | 267 |
Inequality and Race Models and Policy | 269 |
Conceptual Problems in the Enforcement of AntiDiscrimination Laws | 296 |
Meritocracy Redistribution and the Size of the Pie | 317 |
341 | |
A Reanalysis of The Bell Curve Intelligence Family Background and Schooling | 137 |
Other editions - View all
Meritocracy and Economic Inequality Kenneth Arrow,Samuel Bowles,Steven N. Durlauf Limited preview - 2000 |
Meritocracy and Economic Inequality Kenneth Arrow,Samuel Bowles,Steven N. Durlauf Limited preview - 2018 |
Meritocracy and Economic Inequality Kenneth Joseph Arrow,Samuel Bowles,Steven N. Durlauf No preview available - 2000 |