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IQ in Economics
A Category Archive (49 entries)
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May 18, 2013
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
Jim Flynn's latest book has fascinating info on age and intelligence. But Sternberg, Wagner, Williams, and Horvath, "Testing Common Sense" (American Psychologist, 1995) suggest that Flynn misses an important part of the story. There's a widespread perception that "common sense"... MORE
May 10, 2013
Economics and Culture
Bryan Caplan
In a just world, no researcher would be fired for truthfully stating that some kinds of immigrants have low IQs.In a just world, however, researchers would be fired for arguing that people with below-average IQs should be denied their basic... MORE
April 9, 2013
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
From Schmidt and Hunter, "General Mental Ability in the World of World" (2004, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology):Why Is GMA [General Mental Ability] So Important for Job Performance?It can be difficult for people to accept facts and findings they... MORE
April 5, 2013
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
While investigating the legality of hiring based on educational credentials and IQ tests, I came across an interesting old post by Half Sigma. Why credentialism is safe but IQ tests aren't:[I]t's OK to use college degrees as a hiring requirement...... MORE
April 4, 2013
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
A series of queries that's stumping most of my favorite IQ researchers:Are there any countries where IQ testing for hiring purposes is totally legal? Largely legal? Do we have any idea if the education premium rose less in those countries... MORE
February 1, 2013
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Have results from the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment ever been used to predict adult income? Or even better, adult income controlling for education and IQ?Any relevant citations are much-appreciated.... MORE
January 29, 2013
Economics of Education
Bryan Caplan
Here's an excerpt from chapter 2 of the current draft of The Case Against Education. Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Making You Smarter While educators often promise to teach students how to think, they rarely vow to raise students' intelligence. Trying to "make... MORE
January 4, 2013
Cost-benefit Analysis
Bryan Caplan
Vipul Naik of Open Borders sent me a very insightful email on the non-pecuniary returns to education. He's kindly given me permission to reprint it. Vipul speaks:I've been thinking more about your human capital/signaling/ability bias theories of education. It seems... MORE
November 26, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Two decades ago, economists started taking intelligence seriously. Now economists are starting to take conscientiousness seriously. Unfortunately, most existing data sets don't contain personality tests. Even when they do, personality tests are only self-reports. Wouldn't it be great if we... MORE
November 7, 2012
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
Another bleg from the tireless Vipul Naik of Open Borders. Vipul's words:What impact would open borders have on global IQ within a generation or two? Even hardcore IQ hereditarians concede some sort of Flynn effect and the role of malnutrition... MORE
October 10, 2012
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Bryan Caplan
My review of James Flynn's Are We Getting Smarter? is in today's Wall Street Journal. Highlights:When most people hear about the Flynn effect, they conclude that we really are getting smarter. Mr. Flynn is more cautious. He opens the book... MORE
October 1, 2012
IQ in Economics
Garett Jones
In Arnold's new essay entitled "Libertarians and Group Norms," he writes:[W]e live in a world that demands enormous levels of trust among strangers...I doubt that anyone fully comprehends what holds this fabric of trust together. I agree. But we're building comprehension,... MORE
September 11, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
When lies sound better than truth, people tend to lie. That's Social Desirability Bias for you. Take the truth, "Half the population is below the 50th percentile of intelligence." It's unequivocally true - and sounds awful. Nice people don't call... MORE
August 16, 2012
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen write (large .pdf) We do not assume that national IQ is the only factor capable to explain global disparities in access to clean water and sanitation facilities; we only assume that it is probably the... MORE
July 17, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Tyler and Arnold have written engaging retrospectives on their Ph.D. cohorts at Harvard and MIT. But I'd rather discuss the contributions of Arnold's classmate - and my undergraduate Econ 1 professor - William T. Dickens. Arnold's right to say:Bill Dickens... MORE
June 12, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
The meritorious Trevor Burrus responds to my defense of merit against his critique. Though he's not crying uncle, Trevor concedes a key point:Bryan argues that "the correlation between market success and merit is imperfect, [but] still fairly high." Great success... MORE
June 11, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
The meritorious libertarian Trevor Burrus has unfortunately joined the ranks of libertarians against merit:Libertarians are often accused of advocating for a merit-based society. The free market, the argument goes, produces a distribution that more-or-less corresponds to how meritorious the people... MORE
May 14, 2012
Economics of Education
Bryan Caplan
Lots of great feedback in response to last week's question, "Why don't applicants volunteer their test scores?" I'm increasingly impressed by the wide range of first-hand education/job experiences; clearly the world is full of puzzles few economists have ever conceived,... MORE
May 12, 2012
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Charles Kenny writes, The good news is that decolonization began a process of leveling the playing field, with rapidly climbing and converging indicators of health and education worldwide. Thanks to the Flynn effect, IQs are doubtless on a path of... MORE
Economic Methods
Bryan Caplan
Does breast-feeding really give your kids a leg up in life? It's an important question, and there's a lot of research on it. But most of the research is, at best, moderately convincing. The key weakness: If parents falsely believe... MORE
May 10, 2012
Economics of Education
Bryan Caplan
When lawyers hear about the signaling model of education, they often invoke the Supreme Court case of Griggs vs. Duke Power. Griggs created a strong legal presumption that it is "discriminatory" for employers to hire on the basis of IQ... MORE
April 9, 2012
IQ in Economics
David Henderson
Bryan Caplan's latest post is a great response to some assertions made by Will Wilkinson and Tyler Cowen. When Michael Kinsley was writing regularly for The New Republic during the first Bush administration, he was brilliant. He usually attacked Bush... MORE
January 17, 2012
Income Distribution
Bryan Caplan
On Friday, I read Charles Murray's new book, Coming Apart: The State of White American, 1960-2010, cover to cover. Murray's given the world another social science page turner, written with earnest eloquence and full of fascinating information. His main claim:... MORE
January 3, 2012
Income Distribution
Arnold Kling
Charles Murray writes, As recently as half a century ago, Americans across all classes showed only minor differences on the Founding virtues. When Americans resisted the idea of being thought part of an upper class or lower class, they were... MORE
May 7, 2011
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
IQ scores predict a wide range of life outcomes and respond to incentives. But almost all of the evidence that IQ predicts life outcomes comes from IQ tests that don't use incentives. Which raises a big question: Would incentivized IQ... MORE
May 6, 2011
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
Years ago, I told Tyler Cowen, "It's surprising that IQ tests predict life outcomes so well, because there's usually no financial incentive to get a high score." He replied, "People try out of pride - an under-rated motive." So when... MORE
October 18, 2010
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
I've been telling EconLog readers about my article with Steve Miller on intelligence and economic beliefs for years. Now our piece has finally been published in Intelligence. Quick version of the paper:Adding a measure of intelligence to the list of... MORE
September 30, 2010
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
In the comments, Two Things writes:1. If your book about poverty doesn't discuss IQ then it will be worthless, or nearly so. 2. If your book blames poverty in underdeveloped countries on the immigration policies of developed countries then it... MORE
September 15, 2010
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Out of all the reactions I've heard to Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, the most disturbing are all variations on "Except stupid people. They shouldn't have kids." I could snark, "You mean people like you?," but that would be... MORE
May 6, 2010
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Mr. Human Biodiversity: The average IQ of immigrants from Mexico is 11 points less than ours. Therefore, let's hunt them down like animals and cast them back into the fiery chasm from whence they came!Dr. Mainstream Intellectual: Only a monster... MORE
April 28, 2010
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
I'm pleased to see one critic of immigration, Richard Hoste, engaging my Comparative Advantage argument for open borders. In fact, he admits that my point, then objects:Unfortunately, the low IQ masses vote. They demand free health care, welfare and schools... MORE
March 5, 2010
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
My colleague Garett Jones is working on a book called Hive Mind: Why Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own. I thought about his project while reading Robert Gordon's article "Everyday Life as an Intelligence Test." One... MORE
December 3, 2009
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
the new genetics will reveal much less than hoped about how to cure disease, and much more than feared about human evolution and inequality, including genetic differences between classes, ethnicities and races. That is Geoffrey Miller, who you may... MORE
August 7, 2009
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
Overall, I'm critical of Geoffrey Miller's Spent (see here, here, and here). But I'm impressed that after proclaiming himself "a secular humanist, an antiwar internationalist, an animal-rights environmentalist, a pro-gay feminist, a libertarian on most social, sexual, and cultural issues,... MORE
July 14, 2009
Economics of Education
Arnold Kling
He writes, ...modern societies are currently vastly over-provided with formal education, and this education has the wrong emphasis. In particular, the job of sorting people by their general aptitude could be done more accurately, cheaply and quickly by using psychometrics... MORE
February 28, 2009
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
Only because I am too busy. Grant McCracken on whether restrained consumer spending will be temporary or permanent. Virginia Postrel on the same topic, based on discussions at the Kauffman Foundation Forum. It was great to see her looking so... MORE
February 11, 2009
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
People in advanced countries have been getting smarter for decades; that's the Flynn effect. Researchers have been arguing for quite a while about when the Flynn effect is going to level off. Now Flynn says that in Great Brain, his... MORE
November 5, 2008
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
Probably even smarter - only physics, math, and c.s. have higher average GRE scores. We even beat electrical engineers. Sorry, dad, but facts are facts. :-)Nevertheless, the fact that economists are smart is much less important that the fact that... MORE
September 1, 2008
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
David Friedman writes, It is hard to see how humans could have evolved intelligence if intelligence is not heritable. I hope that the notion that there is zero heritability of intelligence is a straw man. The debate ought to be... MORE
June 24, 2008
Growth: Consequences
Arnold Kling
is that human nature has changed in the last few hundred years. If you could go back to 1708 and replace all of the babies at conception with babies conceived today, my prediction is that the alternative history from 1708... MORE
June 18, 2008
IQ in Economics
Bryan Caplan
I finally got around to reading Plomin et al's classic 1997 parent-offspring adoption study. Background: Way back in 1975, Plomin and co-authors launched the Colorado Adoption Project (CAP). They put together a sample of 245 adoptees, their biological mothers, their... MORE
February 19, 2008
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Nobel Laureate James J. Heckman, et al write, Most economists are unaware of the evidence that certain personality traits are more malleable than cognitive ability over the life cycle and are more sensitive to investment by parents and to other... MORE
January 22, 2008
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Gary Becker writes, Yet it may be possible to overcome to a considerable degree this intergenerational transmission of low status. The most promising approaches in my opinion involve self-help programs that encourage better choices in black communities, the legalization of... MORE
December 9, 2007
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen finds some in Slate and in The New York Times. In the latter, Richard E. Nisbett writes, Most important, we know that interventions at every age from infancy to college can reduce racial gaps in both I.Q. and... MORE
November 27, 2007
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Several interesting comments on this post. The puzzle is this: let X be the correlation between parental IQ and children's IQ. Let Y be the correlation between the child's IQ and the child's future earnings. Let Z be the correlation... MORE
November 26, 2007
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Brad DeLong writes, If inherited genetically-based IQ were the source of the extra edge that the children of the rich get in our society, than we would expect a parent with 4 times average lifetime full-time earnings--say $200,000 a year--to... MORE
November 20, 2007
Economics of Education
Arnold Kling
My latest essay tries to sort out the issues of race, IQ, and education. Earlier, I said that my preferred approach is individualism. To understand this approach, try this thought experiment: imagine if everyone suddenly were afflicted with group-identity amnesia.... MORE
November 14, 2007
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Stephen J. Ceci writes, Each of us gains every year approximately .3 of an IQ point (6 IQ points every twenty years), and this has been found for nearly 30 nations. It was a secret before Flynn and others made... MORE
November 11, 2007
IQ in Economics
Arnold Kling
Lots of stuff showing up on IQ and genetics these days. The New York Times has a story. “Let’s say [hypothetically] the genetic data says we’ll have to spend two times as much for every black child to close the... MORE
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