Present Value of Knowing Math Well?
mediaman: The present value of math skills is not just Q-N, because there are confounding factors. For example, do smarter people gravitate to quantitative careers? Do more ambitious people select quantitative careers? Do people with a better starting environment in life receive the necessary encouragement and guidance to pursue a quantitative career versus those with worse starting environments?I have no answer to those questions, but they are all at least credible concerns. To fairly answer the OP's question, we'd have to observe people who exhibit all the qualities of a person selecting a quantitative career, but who have not actually done so.This is similar to the problem of measuring the returns on attending elite colleges versus standard colleges. Measured by comparing the earnings of elite graduates versus standard graduates, it appears that there is a high return. But measured by tracking earnings of those who earned admission to elite colleges, but instead chose standard colleges, the difference disappears: there is no incremental return, for a person qualified to attend an elite college, for doing so.We may have a similar problem here. Any ideas on the best way to measure this?