Preprint of a new paper examining the material conditions that give rise to internationally recognized scientists just came out. The authors argue that if we were actually recognizing and nurturing scientific talent, we'd expect the family income distribution of Nobel laureates to be roughly normal (i.e. most Nobel winners would come from families with incomes around the 50th percentile). Their results very much do not bear this out: the average Nobel winner grew up in a household in the about the 90th percentile of income no matter where they grew up, with disproportionately large numbers coming from the 95th percentile and up. This strongly suggests that academic achievement, especially at the highest levels, is not a meritocracy, but rather limited by the material conditions of birth.
I know, but the size of the effect is really staggering.
Roughly uniform you mean? Most people aren't near the 50th percentile, there's the same number of people in the 45th to 55th percentiles as the 0th to 10th and 90th to 100th.
Honestly, not really. I think it's less about wealth directly as it is about the overly particular academic path. I think there is high heritibility among professors because their kids get a much better idea of how to become a professor, and have a built-in network. There's probably a similar trend with lawyers and doctors.
Yeah, that was sloppy, sorry. Here's how they put it:
You're right that that's not the same thing as a normal distribution on this diagram.
The paper also tracks education rank and parent occupation; income is way more significant than anything else. In fact, the most common parental occupation for Nobel parents is "business owner." I'm sure the effect you're talking about isn't insignificant, but it seems to be dominated by the effect of wealth, at least according to this paper.
This! Simply knowing how to network and having the right peer group are such big factors on how a career in academia goes (or doesn't go).
Professors are nowhere near the 95th percentile in income. If this were the case, you would expect to see a spike around the 75-85 range, not at 95.
Professors in Canadian R1 equivalents are definitely in the 95th income percentile lol. Virtually everyone in the department I got my PhD from are in the 98th and 99th percentiles.
Fair enough, I can only speak for the US. In the US, the 50th percentile for professors is about the 80th percentile nation-wide.
I find it surprising that you had professors making 400,000 per year
I thought the cutoff for the 99th percentile was closer to $250k here, but a large chunk of the department was in the $200k-$300k range
I forgot this was in Canada. That makes more sense I suppose
tenured professors at private universities make around 200,000 per year, which puts them at the 94th percentile. Public university professors name around 150k, which puts them at the 90th percentile.
Can I ask where you got that data? Those numbers are substantially higher than I was able to find in the US, but I grant that my sources are self-reports. I can find public data, but only as recently as 2010.
Secondary source: https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/2021/06/01/college-professor-salary/
Primary source: https://www.aaup.org/preliminary-2023-24-faculty-compensation-survey-results
That's some good data. Thanks!
So you suggest that noble price winners have rich parents?