How meritocratic is the United States?

This paper argues that a meritocracy exists to the extent that economically valued positions are allocated on the basis of educational attainment and performance, cognitive ability, and general personal dispositions like conscientiousness. The paper justifies these components of merit on the grounds that each is notably linked to job performance or is a reasonable predictor of performance. Drawing on the status attainment and wage determination literatures, this review establishes that in absolute terms the meritocratic impact is significant though not decisive, but the meritocratic impact is much more consequential than the impact of ascribed characteristics.