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Presenter: Ethan James Clark

Faculty Sponsor: Kevin L. Young

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Business & Economics

Session: Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM, Auditorium, A73

ABSTRACT

The narrative that is commonly expressed throughout society emphasizes education as a pathway to success. However, the extent to which this achievement correlates with standards of success, such as extreme wealth, has yet to be examined. This research investigates how education plays a role in an American billionaires' ability to amass their extreme wealth. The research examines individuals among the 400 wealthiest in the U.S. to compare how their educational backgrounds coincide with their status respectively. This employs mixed research methods to assess historical institutional rankings of universities from when many elites would have attended them. This will measure the academic notoriety of institutions relative to the data. The research also will measure other forms of causes for the making of an elite to see well if education truly has an effect. For instance, Investigating how billionaires' educational paths, or lack thereof, relate to their family background because of their achievements and their connections can also determine elite production. The research uses a weighted sampling method which looks at the Forbes 400 wealthiest individuals in the U.S.A., of which a majority of data sampling will come from the top 100 individuals, considering the most variance across wealth occurs among them, while a remainder essentially plateaus in comparison. The study applies statistical methods in the hopes to investigate the relationship between educational prestige and net worth, meanwhile qualitative methods examine how generational factors and system benefits impact the status of a top U.S. elite.