WHO GETS AHEAD IN ESTONIA AND AMERICA? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MENTAL ABILITY AND SOCIAL ORIGIN AS DETERMINANTS OF SUCCESS

Abstract

Status attainment research has shown that people's mental ability (intelligence) is an important determinant of their career success in western societies. But so far, no study has investigated the impact of mental ability on career success in Estonia. The present paper analyzes a longitudinal data-set from Estonia to fill this gap and compares the results with a similar data-set from the United States. The impact of mental ability is compared to the impact of social origin. Success is conceptualized as education, occupation and income of an individual. The analyses demonstrate that both mental ability and social origin have a positive effect on success in Estonia and the United States. However, the impact of mental ability is stronger in the United States and the impact of social origin is, to a lesser extent, stronger in Estonia. It can be concluded that Estonian society is less open and meritocratic than American society. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of TRAMES: A Journal of the Humanities & Social Sciences is the property of Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)