To what extent can one attribute their own success to hard work Flashcards
What did the Equality Trust article cited in Rob’s paper discuss?
A Telegraph article illustrating the ‘Empathy Gap’ - the difficulties of sending a child to private school in the aftermath of the financial crisis, going out for dinner, and having to learn to live to a budget.
What is the child-parent income correlation in the United States?
About 0.5.
What is the average discrepancy between the salary of a college graduate and the salary of a high-school graduate?
About $500.
How was educational attainment and socieconomic status related in Figure 3?
Students in the lowest income group but the highest attainment group were equally as likely to attend college as a student from the highest income group but the lowest attainment group.
How are socioeconomic mobility and income inequality related?
They are correlated.
Why might you credit your successes to hard work, rather than luck?
Because hard work may be more memorable than serendipity, meaning that I tend to favour them when explaining my successes.
Who undertook the study comparing rural and urban soldiers in the late 1940s?
Paul Lazarsfeld.
What percentage of students in a top MBA programme believed that their performance ranked them above average?
87%
What was a limitation of Frank’s study?
The discrepancy between the two responses (i.e. ‘I can imagine being close friends with that person’ and ‘That person would agree that kindness towards other people is important.’) was quite small, only 10%. Unfortunately, no standard deviation for the responses was given.
What is one of the most equal societies in the world? Why is it thought to be so?
Japan. A high top-bracket income (45%) and inheritance tax (55%), along with a culture that shuns ostentatious displays of wealth.
What was the discrepancy in donation percentage between the group that listed external factors and the group that listed internal factors?
About 5%.
What evidence was lacking in Rob’s argument for consumption tax?
Evidence that high-income individuals spend a large proportion of their income on property extensions.
What might be the effect of disincentivising spending on economic growth?
It could conceivably go negative as demand drops.
