Sunday, January 20, 2008

Harvard MBA Indicator-2008 Update

"In short, there are fewer bank tellers and back-office clerks and more M.B.A.s, Ph.D.s and even M.D.s on Wall Street. In the 1960s and 1970s graduates of Harvard University were much more likely to be lawyers, doctors and academics than to head for Wall Street. ... About 15% of men who graduated from Harvard around 1990 were working in finance 15 years after graduation, compared with about 5% of those who graduated around 1970. Among Harvard women, the share employed in finance increased to 3.4% from 2.3%. ... The lure is obvious. It's the money. Comparing graduates with similar SAT scores, grade-point averages, gender, age, occupation and everything else they can measure, [Lawrence Katz and Claudia Goldin] find Harvard grads who work in finance earn 195% of the pay of those who work elsewhere", David Wessel (DW) at the WSJ, 17 January 2008.

DW erred. He meant to write, "195% more" as he says the finance people make "nearly three times as much" as their classmates. There is no industry as full of overpaid incompetants as finance. See also my 25 October 2007 post.

3 comments:

Robyn said...

i know a few industries with overpaid incompentents. the legal field. teachers [although there ARE many fine teachers]. advertising. SPORTS GUYS/

Independent Accountant said...

True, but the significance of Harvard MBA indicator is: when the Harvard MBAs fill a field, it is getting ready for a denouement.

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