Brains Versus Brawn: Ordinal Rank Effects in Job Training
Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?
Using data from Air Force basic military training, Civitas Senior Fellow Scott Carrell and Alexander Chesney examine the impacts of relative rank in cognitive and physical ability on enlistees short and longer-run outcomes. Results show strong evidence for the “big fish, small pond” phenomenon, meaning that individuals of equal ability tend to thrive when they are higher on the proverbial pecking order of ability within their assigned group. Findings also suggest that overall group productivity could be improved by altering the way military personnel are assigned to training groups.
Read the Full Paper
This paper was originally published by the Journal of Public Economics.
Pursuit of Happiness
The Rise of Latino America
In The Rise of Latino America, Hernandez & Kotkin argue that Latinos, who are projected to become America’s largest ethnic group, are a dynamic force shaping the nation’s demographic, economic, and cultural future. Far from being a marginalized group defined by oppression, Latinos are integral to America’s story. They drive economic growth, cultural evolution, and workforce vitality. Challenges, however, including poverty, educational disparities, and restrictive policies, threaten their upward mobility. Policymakers who wish to harness Latino potential to ensure national prosperity and resilience should adopt policies that prioritize affordability, safety, and economic opportunity over ideological constraints.
Richard Epstein on Roman Law and Sociobiology
How and why Roman law worked, how it eventually fell apart, and sociobiology as a way to explain the foundations and limits of legal norms.
James Q. Wilson and the Crisis of Our Time
"When we profess to believe in deterrence and to value justice, but refuse to spend the energy and money required to produce either, we are sending a clear signal that we think that safe streets, unlike all other great public goods, can be had on the cheap."
Welcome to the Manosphere
What counter-programming might resonate, reaching young men with the message that unhealthy conspiracism and cartoonish machismo need not be a part of a healthy striver mentality?
