7 - Notable Achievement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Just as wealth mobility (Chapter 6) provides important clues about the financial strategies and processes that account for wealth ownership, so does consistent achievement. The findings that I report throughout this book – and other available research – show that Mainline Protestants, Jews, and Mormons/LDS in the United States have achieved high levels of financial success that are worth additional attention. As I have mentioned briefly, Mainline Protestants have historically had high SES and have occupied positions of power in the United States. A historic advantage certainly contributes to their current well-being, but I explore how and why these denominations have maintained their advantage. There is also evidence that Jews have attained notably high levels of well-being; this achievement has become evident in the results I present throughout this book, and these are consistent with the small number of other empirical works that have explored the contributing factors (Burstein 2007; Chiswick 1986, 1993; Lehrer 2009). It appears that human-capital acquisition, family behaviors and processes, and other issues related to ethno-religious particularity, marginality, and social capital contribute to Jewish achievement. Educational attainment is high among Jews, fertility rates are low, rates of female employment when children are young are low, and wealth appears to follow. I explore the magnitude of the Jewish advantage and address some of the possible explanations for the achievement of this group.
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- Faith and MoneyHow Religion Contributes to Wealth and Poverty, pp. 163 - 188Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011