Meritocracy and Economic Inequality

There has been some recent academic attention focussed on cultural and genetic explanations of persistent poverty, including claims that economic inequality is a function of intellectual ability. 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 a 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 analyse 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, and find 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 neighbourhoods, working groups, and other social ties—significantly explain many of the poverty traps we observe. The optimistic message of this edited book is that important violations of the equality of opportunity do exist but can be attenuated by policies that will serve the general economy. 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. The book contains concrete suggestions for crafting economically beneficial anti-discrimination measures, enhancing educational and associational opportunity and centring economic reforms in community based institutions. It is a fascinating read for researchers from various disciplines—economics, politics, sociology and education—as well as policy makers and general readers.