The Stability of the American Business Elite

36 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2000 Last revised: 22 Apr 2023

See all articles by Peter Temin

Peter Temin

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: December 1998

Abstract

This paper begins the task of explaining why the American business elite has remained white, male and mostly native-born Protestants for a century, as verified in a previous paper (Temin, 1997). I argue that the evidence is inconsistent with the hypotheses that the stability is due to discrimination on the job or to principal-agent factors. The most likely explanation is that this demographic group makes the best business managers. I suggest that this in turn is not because they are inherently superior, but because they have had access to superior education, a result of past discrimination.

Suggested Citation

Temin, Peter, The Stability of the American Business Elite (December 1998). NBER Working Paper No. h0110, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=225152

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