Who Benefits from Meritocracy?

Diana Moreira and Santiago Perez

No 30113, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Individuals from lower-income backgrounds are underrepresented in high-status occupations. This underrepresentation has coincided with increasing scrutiny of the “meritocratic” criteria shaping access to these positions. We study the equity impacts of a prominent example of meritocratic selection: civil service exams. To do so, we use evidence from the Pendleton Act, a historical reform that introduced such exams to select U.S. federal employees. We find that, although the reform increased the representation of “educated outsiders” (individuals with high education but limited connections), it reduced the representation of lower-SES individuals. This reduction was stronger among applicants from states with high educational inequality.

JEL-codes: J15 J62 M5 N21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lab
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