Hi These lists, especially by themselves, do NOT allow the kinds of inferences Mike appears to make. The list looks at (a) a tiny fraction of the relevant population (100 people or even 400) and (b) ONLY those with enough wealth to be billionaires.
To illustrate the problem, consider the 4 PhDs on Mike's list (i.e., 4% of 100 billionaires). Recent statistics, such as http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/cps2007/Table1-01.csv indicate that just over 1% of the American adult population has a PhD. And presumably this figure would have been even lower in the past. Hence, PhDs are actually over-represented on the list of billionaires relative to their numbers in the general population. One would need similar and more precise figures to properly evaluate the role of education. More precise in the sense of adjusting for age because it might be less clear than in the case of PhDs what the historical figures would be. But even crude data show the dangers of making inferences about HS dropouts from the 15 on Mike's list of billionaires. To illustrate, the following table (if link works!) http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_S1501&-ds_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-state=st&-format= shows that in 2007 16% of population 25 and older did not complete HS. But this figure increases markedly at highest age levels; a full 27% of those 65 and older did not graduate from HS. But on Mike's list, only 16% of billionaires 65 and over did not graduate from HS, far below the proportion in the general population their age. Alternatively (unless one is only interested in billionaires rather than more realistic earnings), the census provides more relevant data, or any number of other databases. Here are a few links: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/Intlindicators/index.asp?SectionNumber=5&SubSectionNumber=1&IndicatorNumber=106 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Education_and_Gender Clearly earnings increase with education, albeit with a few perturbations largely due to professional degrees. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca >>> "Mike Palij" <m...@nyu.edu> 30-Aug-09 5:20:55 PM >>> If you do, were are some rules based upon an analysis of the information about 400 Richest People in the United States for 2009 (actually only data from the top 101 richest people was analyzed; even my OCD has it limits): http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_The-400-Richest-Americans_Rank.html (1) Don't get a Ph.D. Only 4 people out of 101 have a Ph.D. and they are nowhere near the richest. 36 out of 101 have a B.A. but 15 only have a High School diploma (some apparently never attended college, others are college dropouts; NOTE: Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Whatever, who is British and not included in this data apparently dropped out of high school). There are 7 people who have indeterminate levels of education. In some cases, it is possible that some of these did not have formal schooling (though they may have had tutoring; they may have inherited the money). (2) It doesn't really matter whether you complete you education. There were 12 people who "dropped out" of their educational studies but the mean net worth of these people is about $15 Billion (Bill Gates, as the richest man in the world, skews things) while the 83 people who did complete their studies had a mean net worth of $8.61 Billion. (3) High School graduates are richest people in the U.S. ?????? Given that most college dropouts can only claim their high school diplomas as their highest certified level of educational achievement, people with only a High School diploma have a mean net worth of $13.64 Billion. Of the top 101 richest U.S. people, those with a Bachelor's degree actually have a lower net worth of $7.83 Billion. People with a Master's degree (usually an MBA) do somewhat better with a net worth of $10.65 Billion. Folks with a JD or an MD or a Ph.D. only have a net worth of about $6.75 Billion (yes, less than a person with a B.A.). This is so depressing that I'm not going to shave for the next few days. Anyway, I've attached an SPSS system data file (not an Excel file like I did earlier) of the data I pulled off of the Forbes website. I didn't include the U.S. News ranking of colleges because, quite frankly, it doesn't seem to be relevant (I'll leave it to some other enterprising soul to do so). I'm now going to have a beer and wait for the new episode of "Mad Men" to air. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
