Chris Dillow — Age, Luck & Unearned Privilege

A new paper by Daniel Muller and Lionel Page shows that top US politicians are disproprtionately likely to have been among the oldest in their school year. This lucky accident of birth gave them advantages even many years later, partly because being among the oldest in their year made them likely to be bigger than their peers and so more likely to develop leadership skills. They say, following Heckman and Cunha (pdf): "Skills attained at one stage in life are self-productive in the sense that they facilitate further accumulation of human capital. This phenomenon may be especially pronounced for leadership skills."...

It is more evidence of the importance that luck plays in determining our outcomes in life; nobody, after all, can control the timing of their birth. And so it further undermines the silly idea that the successful somehow deserve their wealth and power.

Stumbling and Mumbling
Age, Luck & Unearned Privilege
Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle (UK)