Rating: 
Summary: Impressive and interesting
Review: A very impressive piece of work by Lynn and Vanahanen, and to avoid sounding like a broken record and repeat what other reviewers have already wrote, I¡¯ll concentrate on one aspect of the book that I found not only interesting but critical in understanding this question of IQ and national wealth correlation, and that is history. It is obvious that both history and culture play important roles in national development, and although for some cases the authors have touched and to some extent briefly deliberated on the issue of history and culture, it is perhaps ultimately beyond the scope of this book to deal with such issues at great depth.
For instance, I was particularly interested in the authors¡¯ explanation for China¡¯s technological and scientific stagnation after the 17th Century on comparison to the West despite China¡¯s traditional eminence. The authors, quoting some historian, explained that the Chinese failure to develop a market economy resulted in the failure to develop technologies to their full potential as well as the imperial autocracy that stifled innovation and scientific progress. Well, a generally correct but many important details were missing such as the distrust between the non-Han Chinese Qing government and the general population, court corruption, heavy bias towards agriculture etc.
Again, I realise this isn¡¯t a history book, but for readers who would like to acquire a more complete understanding, the history and culture cannot be ignored. On India, I guess many would be surprised by the relative low Indian national IQ, India is in fact much like Israel (another surprise) where the population is not as ethnically homogenous as one would think. And coupled with widespread poverty and underdevelopment, India's national IQ may not be so exaggerated. I recall that one reviewer quoting Saudi Arabia, where Arabs excelled in science centuries ago but now have a relatively low national IQ now, and thus implied some contradiction. Again it comes down to history. In recent decades, many Africans (from Ethiopia & Sudan) have taken residence in the Saudi Kingdom, to the extent that now a vast portion of the Saudi population is ethnically non-Arab or mixed race with African linkage, and many in this group remain underprivileged. A ¡®national¡¯ IQ would have undoubtedly included samples from this group. All in all, this is book is well researched and provides a lot of fascinating information, and is certainly an important piece in the puzzle of human intelligence and its bearing on national development. However the general conclusions are quite conspicuous, one only has to look briefly at the past 5000 years of human history and the development of various civilisations around the world in order to easily deduce the more ¡®intellectually inclined¡¯ racial groups. However the authors choose to do it via a mathematical approach by the use of heavy statistics, but in order to properly interpret these statisitics, referencing with particular histories and cultural issues are required. I'm looking forward to a updated edition of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Africa IQ 70, India 81, China IQ 100 or 105. Is it True???
Review: Africa IQ 70, China IQ 100 or 105. India 81, Is it True???. The world has more than 6 billion people. The Cold War, from the 1940s to the 1990s cut the world into two camps. Almost a third of the world embraced communism/socialism. Nations like China, North Koreas cut itself off from the rest of the world. Now, socialism is dead. South Korean per capita income is 20 times that of North Korea. Cubans make $20 a month in communist Cuba whereas a Cuban in Florida can make more money at McDonald in a single day. Trade, commerce, exchange, the free flow of goods, services, ideas is the way to get rich and out of poverty. Trade and commerce has been going on since the very, very beginning of human history. Now that the world has embraced, free markets, free trade, free commerce, free exchange, why have some countries remained so poor while other nations are rich or are on the way to riches. Now statism is dead, why is China growing at 8%-9% a year whereas Africa has a falling, negative per capita income. Africa is now poorer than 30, 40 years. If you shop at Wal-Mart, Target, any toy, electronics, clothes, it seems, all is now "Made in China" However, I see anything, anything "Made in Africa". Two-respected professor put the academic theses as follow. Wealth of nations depends on three factors. #1. Natural Resources. Resources from "Nature", ...Land, Land, Land Oil, Oil. Oil. etc. fishing. farming. e.g. Oil in the Middle East. Sheep in New Zealnd. Diamond in Central Africa etc. Unfortunately, natural resources from "nature" is either something you have or do not. #2. Free Market Enterprise economies or Static/Socialist Economy. Wherever there is socialism, there is poverty. China, India, the USSR are basically Third World countries under socialism. Now socialism has been abandoned. China has the world's fastest growing economy, India exports software. etc. Free markets bring trade, wealth whereas socialism brings poverty. #3. Wealth depends on IQ of nations. High IQ has two values.
One, high IQ nations can build a superior infrastructure for transportation, communication, education, stable bureaucracy, government, etc. Two, high IQ nations can produce goods and services demanded by the international marketplace. Products such as Japanese cars, computers, LCD, electronics, medicine, Caterpillar tractors, computer CPU, Boeing 777 airplanes are in heavy demand in the worldwide marketplace. Nations that can produce goods the world demands will be rich. Nations that produce nothing will be poor. It about SUPPY and DEMAND. Now, supply and demand is at the worldwide level. The author posits a IQ of 70 for Africa. East Asians have an IQ of 105. In fact, the highest IQ, 107, is recorded for the Chinese of in Hong Kong. The Chinese IQ is somewhere between 100-107, possible at 105. This may explain why the Chinese economy is growing through the roof and everything is now "made in china" The native African IQ is 70. The may explain the negative per capita, income, endless civil war, poverty, famine. The whole continent of Africa was colonized in the 19th century by Europeans from Egypt to South Africa. Africa IQ of 70 is low. The professors are bold to put the data out, now other academic can either refute or support the 70 IQ. India IQ is 81. The CIA Factbook says half of Indians cannot read, the other half do not have food to eat. 60% of the population struggle to survive on one dollar a day. Indians in USA do not want to visit India because it is so "poor, poor, poor" How could a tiny island-nation, the U.K. colonize, a sub-continent with 600 million people whereas the U.K. had a population less than 60 million. Winston Churchill did not even want to give India her independence. Without World War I, WW II, India may have been a colony of the U.K. for another 30-40 years or even today in 2004.
How could India, with 10 times as many people, be a colony of tiny U.K. The Answer maybe the low IQ of 81. India has a billion people, so it can produce a few engineers, but the overall IQ is posited at 81. The United Kingdom IQ benchmarked at a standard of 100 IQ. China has three times the people of Europe, an IQ somewhere between 100-107. China IQ: 100-107
Africa IQ: 70
India: 81 If the IQ data is correct, China will dominate the 21st century; Africa will have endless poverty, famine, and underdevelopment. India, IQ 81, will be a Third World nation forever. An IQ of 90 is needed to build a science-technology based society. Only 20% of the world people have IQ over 90. Africa IQ 70,
India IQ 81,
China IQ 100-107. Agree or Disagree, this book is incredible, fascinating and will cause a great of debate. The best way to refute the data is for more data. The world needs to examine the professor's great theses. The 21st. century may be determined by IQ of nations.
Rating:
Summary: IQ and Economic Development??? Is it Possible???
Review: Anyone who spends time watching TV news or reading any publication is struck by the amount of poverty and uneven development in the world. According the U.S. World Factbook, many nation in Africa have life expectancy little above 40 years old. Half of the population of India is illiterate and a majority of the populations of China still live in the rural countryside with annual incomes in the hundreds of dollars. What causes the great differences in wealth and poverty between the world's nations. I personally have wondered many of these questions over the years, as I am sure many others, of the wealth and poverty of nations. That's why Professor Lynn and Professor Vanhanen book seems to be a bolt of lightning out of the blue on the issue of Wealth of Poverty of Nations. Book is pricey but definitely worth the cost. The Wealth of Nations can be assessed on three areas: 1.Natural Resources. Land, Oil, Diamond, Agriculture, Fishing, etc.
2.Planned versus Market Economies. Planned, controlled economies have brought poverty to North Korea, Russia, Eastern Europe, Cuba, China. Professor Lynn compares North to South Korea where income in south is 15 times higher than the north. In fact, there is now famine in North Korea.
3.National IQ of population. IQ and Wealth of Nations dwells on the third component between National IQ and Economic Development. The author's ideas are original and are to be commended for a doing a full academic study. The UK IQ of 100 is used as standard measure. The lowest measured is in Guinea (IQ, 59), Nigeria (IQ, 67) and highest in Japan (IQ, 105) and Hong Kong (IQ, 107). Of note, readers will find IQ interesting if not debatable such as India (IQ, 81) Iraq (IQ, 87) Mexico (IQ, 87) US (IQ, 98) and Israel (IQ, 94). You would think India with so many engineers would have a higher IQ. The highest average IQs are of the East Asian nations of North East Asia (IQ, 104), European nations (IQ, 98), and white populations of North America and Australasia (IQ, 98), South and Southwest Asia from the Middle East through Turkey to India and Malaysia (IQ, 87), South East Asia and the Pacific Islands (IQ, 86), Latin America and the Caribbean (IQ, 85), and Africa (IQ, 70). Many readers of the 1994 The Bell Curve will be interested in the authors' finding of IQ of 70 for the native African population in Africa. The African-American IQ is usually 85 in U.S., Jamaica (IQ, 72). The Africans in U.S. have a higher IQ of 85 compared to Africa of 70. This will be of note to historians. Of concern to American reader are the IQ of it's neighboring countries. Canada (97), Mexico (87), Cuba (85), Jamaica (72), Haiti (72) in the news Russia (96) Afghanistan (83). The numbers may be incorrect but nonetheless are worthy areas of debate and data for additional research. Of China (100) and India (81), two nations in the billion people range affecting the future of the world. China (IQ, 100) compared with U.S.A. (98). China has five times as many people as U.S. The IQ of 100 may be depressed because of poverty. If it is 107 like the Chinese in Hong Kong, China seems to be a nation destined to rule the 21st. century. China has ten times more people than Japan (IQ, 105). The IQ on China seems to be of world-historical, world-economic importance if they have such a high IQ. Sitting here in Austin, Texas, this bit of information makes me think. Not will they provide cheap labor, they will also provide the brains for the world. The author posits an IQ of 90 is needed for a technology-based society. Only 20% of the world population have IQ above 90. Africa (IQ, 70) and India (IQ, 81), Latin America (IQ, 85) raises the impossibility of technical development there. This is depressing news. People who work in aiding the Third World really needs to look at these IQ numbers. If the IQ of 70 is correct for Africa, there going to be endless poverty. Having read the book twice, this book really raises unsettling questions about he future of the world. Professor Lynn is expert on IQ with 20 years of scholarly research behind him. Both are not cranks nor pseudo-scientist. Both are professor-academics laying out an academic argument. This maybe the book of the decade if not century. It raises unsettling, alarming, incredible, amazing, tough questions. Has the "missing element" in economic development been IQ after all. Will China (IQ, 100 or 107) dominate the world. Is IQ of Africa 70. Is the world average IQ equal to 90 and only 20% of the world's population above 100. Are nations doomed to poverty because of their IQ. More research and studies to confirm or deny the IQ and theories in this book is needed. This book is a must buy, must read and must book for talk and analysis. Granted this is the first scholarly analysis of IQ and world development. Presumably more books and articles will follow and the IQ of individual nations will be researched and debated. I urge all readers to buy book and read it for themselves. It will keep you thinking for a long, long time as it did for me. If the IQ numbers correlate with economic development, this maybe the book of the decade. Period.
Rating:
Summary: IQ Affects Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Revoutionary Book
Review: I accidentally ran across this book while taking a class on International economics at a local college. The issue of wealth and poverty of nations is complicated, controversial and full of left-right wing ideology. According to the World Bank data and the U.S. World Factbook, how is it possible for so many African countries to have life expectancy to be little above 40 years old. How is it possible, once China had abolished Stalinist-Communist economics, it suddenly became the world's fastest growing economy and will sometime in the 21 st. century overtake the U.S. as the world largest economy? How can some countries be so rich others while others so poor. How can some countries have such bright future while others are mired on poverty, chaos and endless strife? Can it be the national Intelligence (IQ) of the population? This book does not beat around the bush. It cuts to the chase. East Asians (Japan, Korea, China) have the world's highest IQ of around 103-107. The U.S. has IQ of 98. Mexico has IQ of 87. Africans on the African continent have IQ of 70. Please buy book for more data. The British IQ is benchmarked at 100 as a standard measure for all other nations. Hence, African IQ is 30 IQ points below the UK average of 100. If this is not a novel and bold idea, I do not know what it is. The world's average IQ comes out to be only 90. Only 20% of the world's population has IQ above the British average of 100, mostly in East Asia. Americans will be happy to know their reported IQ is 98. Who is Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen? If one looks at the 1994 "The Bell Curve book", he is cited as one the world foremost scholar on IQ. Vanhanen is a professor with several academic studies to to his credit. Basically, the issues of IQ and nations are subjects they have written about for 30 years. The authors are not flukes but are experienced and respected academics. Hence, this is a serious scholarly study to be read seriously by all interested in world economic development. The line of reasoning runs as follow: The Wealth of Nations can be assessed on three areas: #1. Natural Resources. Land, Oil, Diamond, Gold, Agriculture, Fishing, etc, etc. Either you have national resources or you do not. The Middle East has Oil, Japan does not. #2. Socialist versus Market Economies. Planned, controlled economies brings poverty. All socialists-planned economies are poverty-basket cases. Examples are North Korea, Cuba. Cubans have a monthly income of US$ 10. TEN DOLLARS A MONTH! #3. National IQ and Economic Wealth. Main theses of book. Higher IQ nations can produce products and services in demand in the international market that will bring higher wealth to the nation. Example, Japan has IQ of 105, can produce cars, electronics, TV, semiconductors to sell on the international market. Africa has IQ of 70, little or no high-tech or manufactured products to sell to market. Hence, poverty in Africa. Wealth in Japan. Many readers will be interested in the national IQ of various nations. Please buy the book, it's all listed there. Here are some samples. The UK IQ of 100 is used as standard benchmark. The lowest measured is in Guinea (IQ, 59), Nigeria (IQ, 67) and highest in Japan (IQ, 105) and Hong Kong (IQ, 107), India (IQ, 81) Iraq (IQ, 87) Mexico (IQ, 87) US (IQ, 98) and Israel (IQ, 94). The highest average IQs are of the East Asian nations of North East Asia (IQ, 104), European nations (IQ, 98), and white populations of North America and Australasia (IQ, 98), South and Southwest Asia from the Middle East through Turkey to India and Malaysia (IQ, 87), South East Asia and the Pacific Islands (IQ, 86), Latin America and the Caribbean (IQ, 85), and Africa (IQ, 70). Of concern to American reader are the IQ of it's neighboring countries. Canada (IQ, 97), Mexico (IQ, 87), Cuba (IQ, 85), Jamaica (IQ, 72), Haiti (IQ, 72) Russia (IQ, 96) Afghanistan (IQ, 83). The numbers may be incorrect but nonetheless are worthy areas of debate and data for additional research. Of China (IQ, 100) and India (IQ, 81), two nations in the billion people range affecting the future of the world. China (IQ, 100) compared with U.S.A. (98) Economist Adam Smith in 1776 in the year of the American Revolution published "The Wealth of Nations". Smith's idea of the "Market" where buyers and sellers, supply and demand allocates resources in society is still dominant today. The wealth of peoples, nations depends on its ability to produce products and services that will command a high price in the international market. This is a no-brainer, simple ideas. Please buy book. Take it to the next step, the world market demands cars, airplanes, semiconductors, computers, cell phone, medicine. Can all nations produce this? With Oil, you either have it or you do not. With high-tech products, it takes a smart brain and high IQ. That's where the national wealth and IQ comes from. IQ and national wealth and poverty: there is a direct correlation. Please buy the book, read, think and debate the this revolutionary book.
Rating:
Summary: IQ Affects Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Revoutionary Book
Review: I accidentally ran across this book while taking a class on International economics at a local college. The issue of wealth and poverty of nations is complicated, controversial and full of left-right wing ideology. According to the World Bank data and the U.S. World Factbook, how is it possible for so many African countries to have life expectancy to be little above 40 years old. How is it possible, once China had abolished Stalinist-Communist economics, it suddenly became the world's fastest growing economy and will sometime in the 21 st. century overtake the U.S. as the world largest economy? How can some countries be so rich others while others so poor. How can some countries have such bright future while others are mired on poverty, chaos and endless strife? Can it be the national Intelligence (IQ) of the population? This book does not beat around the bush. It cuts to the chase. East Asians (Japan, Korea, China) have the world's highest IQ of around 103-107. The U.S. has IQ of 98. Mexico has IQ of 87. Africans on the African continent have IQ of 70. Please buy book for more data. The British IQ is benchmarked at 100 as a standard measure for all other nations. Hence, African IQ is 30 IQ points below the UK average of 100. If this is not a novel and bold idea, I do not know what it is. The world's average IQ comes out to be only 90. Only 20% of the world's population has IQ above the British average of 100, mostly in East Asia. Americans will be happy to know their reported IQ is 98. Who is Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen? If one looks at the 1994 "The Bell Curve book", he is cited as one the world foremost scholar on IQ. Vanhanen is a professor with several academic studies to to his credit. Basically, the issues of IQ and nations are subjects they have written about for 30 years. The authors are not flukes but are experienced and respected academics. Hence, this is a serious scholarly study to be read seriously by all interested in world economic development. The line of reasoning runs as follow: The Wealth of Nations can be assessed on three areas: #1.Natural Resources. Land, Oil, Diamond, Gold, Agriculture, Fishing, etc, etc. Either you have national resources or you do not. The Middle East has Oil, Japan does not. #2.Socialist versus Market Economies. Planned, controlled economies brings poverty. All socialists-planned economies are poverty-basket cases. Examples are North Korea, Cuba. Cubans have a monthly income of US$ 10. TEN DOLLARS A MONTH! #3.National IQ and Economic Wealth. Main theses of book. Higher IQ nations can produce products and services in demand in the international market that will bring higher wealth to the nation. Example, Japan has IQ of 105, can produce cars, electronics, TV, semiconductors to sell on the international market. Africa has IQ of 70, little or no high-tech or manufactured products to sell to market. Hence, poverty in Africa. Wealth in Japan. Many readers will be interested in the national IQ of various nations. Please buy the book, it's all listed there. Here are some samples. The UK IQ of 100 is used as standard benchmark. The lowest measured is in Guinea (IQ, 59), Nigeria (IQ, 67) and highest in Japan (IQ, 105) and Hong Kong (IQ, 107), India (IQ, 81) Iraq (IQ, 87) Mexico (IQ, 87) US (IQ, 98) and Israel (IQ, 94). The highest average IQs are of the East Asian nations of North East Asia (IQ, 104), European nations (IQ, 98), and white populations of North America and Australasia (IQ, 98), South and Southwest Asia from the Middle East through Turkey to India and Malaysia (IQ, 87), South East Asia and the Pacific Islands (IQ, 86), Latin America and the Caribbean (IQ, 85), and Africa (IQ, 70). Of concern to American reader are the IQ of it's neighboring countries. Canada (IQ, 97), Mexico (IQ, 87), Cuba (IQ, 85), Jamaica (IQ, 72), Haiti (IQ, 72) Russia (IQ, 96) Afghanistan (IQ, 83). The numbers may be incorrect but nonetheless are worthy areas of debate and data for additional research. Of China (IQ, 100) and India (IQ, 81), two nations in the billion people range affecting the future of the world. China (IQ, 100) compared with U.S.A. (98) Economist Adam Smith in 1776 in the year of the American Revolution published "The Wealth of Nations". Smith's idea of the "Market" where buyers and sellers, supply and demand allocates resources in society is still dominant today. The wealth of peoples, nations depends on its ability to produce products and services that will command a high price in the international market. This is a no-brainer, simple ideas. Please buy book. Take it to the next step, the world market demands cars, airplanes, semiconductors, computers, cell phone, medicine. Can all nations produce this? With Oil, you either have it or you do not. With high-tech products, it takes a smart brain and high IQ. That's where the national wealth and IQ comes from. IQ and national wealth and poverty: there is a direct correlation. Please buy the book, read, think and debate the this revolutionary book.
Rating: 
Summary: What is IQ?
Review: Our society forms social policy, most recently the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action in Michigan, on the premise that all racial groups are equal. Not Lincoln's "all men are equal under the law" but "all men are equal". We observe inequality in every aspect of life, most notably educational achievement and financial status. If, as society assumes, all people are equally capable of achievement, there has to be a conspiracy holding some peoples down. And what is it? White racism, they say, as if it could not be more obvious. Well hidden, but still manifest in "low expectations" and "subtle disparagement" etc. We white guys have broad shoulders, but jeez, it gets old after a while. Blacks and liberals have such low opinions of our fundamental morality, we descendants of the abolitionists who freed the slaves and were active partners of the NAACP over the years. It could start to affect our self esteem. A similar conspiracy theory appears at the international level. African countries supposedly remain poor because they have been exploited by more advanced nations. Their attempts at industrialization supposedly fall victim to greedy foreign companies through a scheme of "globalization" that values them only for their raw materials and cheap labor. Just as the racism theory holds that we white guys are in cahoots to hold minorities down, this one assumes an evil alliance among large companies and advanced countries to depress the market value of the labor and raw materials produced by developing countries. Oppression is a rhetorical staple at the U.N. It has been almost 10 years since "The Bell Curve" appeared. Since that time many other books have appeared that appear to support its arguments that peoples are different in statistically significant ways, among them "IQ and the Wealth of Nations", "The g factor," "Race, Evolution and Behavior," "Genes, Peoples and Languages," and Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate." As Pinker so eloquently reports, these books have been vilified by academics. Typical is Peter Irons writing in "Jim Crow's Children" that "virtually all reputable scholars reject claims, most recently leveled by Richard Herrenstein and Charles Murray.." or Hugh Price disparaging "scientifically discredited" theories of intelligence in "Achievement Matters" or Tom Wicker writing in "Tragic Failure" that "...the Bell Curve... received much condemnation as pseudoscience." Strikingly absent from all these well annotated books are footnotes in support of these claims. Who are these "reputable scholars" who have "discredited" these books? Peter Irons offers one name, that of Richard Nisbett, who has authored no books on the subject but does post a 16-page (triple-spaced) bit on his web site. Price and Wicker offer none. The most prominent debunker, Stephen Jay Gould in "The Mismeasure of Man," rather than offering a statistical rebuttal, attacks the premise that statistical analysis is meaningful. He does, of course, cite a few studies that support his case. The policy implications are vast. If all peoples are equally capable we must find and do away with whatever prejudices are holding some back. If all peoples are not equal we have to fall back a century or so and reconsider the white man's burden. What is the obligation of more richly endowed individuals and nations to the less richly endowed? If society is a Darwinist struggle between equally capable combatants, some simply more industrious than others, one would not have too much sympathy for the losers. If the struggle is truly unequal the humanitarian thing to do is to redistribute wealth. It is probably also the smart thing to do -- buy peace. Give Marx partial credit, though redistributing all of it as under Communism proved to be a disaster. Amy Chua's recommends in "World on Fire" that "market dominant minorities" like Jews and Chinese curry favor by giving back to their adoptive countries. Whatever the story, policy should be based on knowledge. Would some "reputable scholar" please step forward to poke holes in Messrs. Lynn and VanHansen's argument? If that proves impossible the U.N. might have to take their arguments into consideration. Imagine what it would do to that body's self esteem.
Rating:
Summary: Landmark Study. Attempts to answer Age Old Quesiton
Review: Professor Lynn and Vanhanen attempts to answer the age old questions of wealth and poverty. Why are some nations rich and some nations poor. This is not a simple question, new nor something that can be answered easily. Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations attempted to answer this question for European nations more than two hundred years ago. Lynn and Vahanen attempts to answer it at the turn of the century for the world. This book should be read with a grain of salt and lots of skepticism. The authors attempts to postulate a national IQ for the world world, for 165 nations. Moreover, the authors attempt to correlate IQ and economic performance. Needless to say, this is gigantic, if not impossible task. Much of the IQ for half the world population is either incomplete nor valid because there just have not been any studies done at all Correlating IQ an economic performance must take into conisderation historical, phyical and cultural factors involved for so many natins and so many people. However, the rise of East Asia as economic powers and Japan in particular does raise the issue of IQ and economic performance. Is natural resources or market economies the sole path to national wealth? Lots of countries have natural resources but are in no way developed at all. This is a good read and good buy just because it has economic data and IQ data on so many nations. It is a scholarly book and not easy reading. It's a gigantic if not altogether fallable attempt to correlate IQ and economic performance of the whole world's nations. Looked under that light, it is a must read, must buy just because of the intellectual grounds this book covers and enormity of the issues it grapples with. Recommend to all interested in wealth and poverty to buy.
Rating:
Summary: Bold hypothesis, and probably true.
Review: Since the 2nd world war, race has been a taboo in the west. The theory and methods concerning economic development and growth have gone forward huge leaps, but the possibility that ethnicity, or genetic inheritance could bring about national differences in development has strictly been excluded from any kind of serious analysis. (take eg. leading economists like Daron Acemoglu, Robert Barro etc)
There is plenty of reasons to assume that different populations may have differencies in genetic inheritance or environment that affect intelligence (e.g. different selecion pressures, selective migration, nurtition).
The question of course is also about the validity of IQ as a culture free measure. But even though there is major issues with the concept, like the Flynn effect, the hypothesis that genetic differences could affect development is a completely valid scientific hypothesis.
In the post-IIWW climate, taking up this hypothesis takes enormous courage. Anyone who forwards it, risks losing his job and becoming a social pariah. This is exactly what Professors Lynn and Vanhanen do. I don't wonder at all that this book is written by two emeritus professors, already at the end of their careers.
The book essentially argues carefully and with common sense that the major determinants of economic development are national intelligence (which is hereditary), natural resources, and freedom of the markets.
Economists are not going to be happy about the methods that the authors apply. The book has no regressions that would include a larger set of variables that are known to affect economic growth, like investments, education, and so forth. However, it is commonly now acknowledged that such cross country regressions suffer from huge econometric problems, and that's why it may be inappropriate to use Lynn & Vanhanen's data for national intelligences as regressors (first of all thay are endogenous).
But, the hypothesis is valid, and having a look at the state of the world (what economists often don't do..) broadly supports the hypothesis. There is not a single economically succesful black country in the world. The exceptions like Botswana and Equatorial Guinea can be explained mostly by good (perhaps intelligent!) use of natural resources like diamonds and oil, but are certainly not explained by creation of high value products. On the other hand, even initially very poor asian countries, like Vietnam, China and Bangladesh are industialising, and others such as Taiwan and Korea have already reached the western standard of living.
This is a very important topic, and it would be best for EVERYONE to find the truth as soon as possible (I'm sure James Heckman the nobelist would agree with this). More research on cognitive ability and economic development is needed. Older generation of researchers do not dare to touch this hot potato. We need a new genereation of researchers to take up this issue and finish it.
The authors of this book may just be motivated by racism, and they could be following a wrong lead. Or they could be 50-100 years ahead of their time. Read this book and ponder for yourself! I think it's an important hypothesis and may well be true. Good scientific proof based on causality will be impossible with modern statistics & econometrics. More DNA-level information on determinants of intelligence is needed. It seems that the psychologists and brain researchers have the ball now. Once they get some conclusive results, economists will follow.
Rating:
Summary: Africa IQ 70, India 81, China IQ 100 or 105. Is it True???
Review: The authors Lynn and Vanhanen to attempt to answer the question of why countries end up being so rich or so poor in IQ and the Wealth of Nations. Examining IQ scores worldwide, crunching the numbers, and constructing the graphs, they come to the conclusion that IQ does play an important role in how wealthy a nation will be.
The first section covers historical speculations about why nations or poor or rich. Some thought it may be due to climate, economic exploitation, or the protestant work ethic. The protestant work ethic was one of the more plausible reasons for wealth differences since many protestants once believed that work was not just work, but their divine "calling" which they were responsible for. Hence capitalism grew faster in protestant countries rather than catholic ones in Europe.
As far as the rankings go, the highest IQ nations are East Asian, then nations of European descent, then middle eastern, latino, south and west Asian nations, and then sub-Sahahan Africa. The highest IQ average is 107 and the lowest is in the mid-60s. The IQ averages are then combined with their present economic wealth and it is determined whether nations are performing above or below their IQ averages. Nations such as China who are just coming out of their communist centrally controlled economy stand to become more rich given their high IQ averages. It is important that a country adopt a free market economy and representative government, if they want to use the populations' IQ to the fullest. The authors think that a country with an IQ below 90 will have trouble developing a modern economy.
Some suggestions are given on how to improve the IQs of poor nations are given at the end. Some solutions are environmental such as improving nutrition. Others are genetic, such as preventing dysgenic fertility. The authors suggest that the richer nations will have to pay out foreign aid to help the poor nations in these matters; even though from what I've read, foreign aid often isn't effective in solving these problems. Some of these nations are corrupt, hostile, or potentially hostile, and don't deserve foreign aid, in my opinion.
I still had a question of whether it was really desirable for every nation to have a modern economy. Or even whether rich nations should have modern economy. It seems you would use up your resources and pollute more, if we keep going the way of mass consumption. Although some nations are poor, there might be some non-economic advantages to living a more primitive lifestyle. Why try to change people who are used to that lifestyle? It might be better to alleviate poverty by not creating more mass consumption societies. These issues aren't covered by the authors.
Rating:
Summary: World-Historical Importance?
Review: The book's content is irresistible - at its heart is a table of the average IQ scores of 81 different countries, drawn from studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The national average IQs range from 107 for Hong Kong to 59 for Equatorial Guinea. Lynn and Vanhanen benchmarked their IQ results so that Britain is 100. America scores 98 on this scale, and the world average is 90. IQ's are assumed to form a normal probability distribution ("bell curve") with the standard deviation set at 15. Here are a few examples:
Nation Avg. IQ
Eq. Guinea 59
Nigeria 67
Barbados 78
Guatemala 79
India 81
Iraq 87
Mexico 87
Argentina 96
US 98
China 100
UK 100
Italy 102
Japan 105
Hong Kong 107 Admit it, you want to know what the rest of the table says! Beyond satisfying sheer curiosity, though, the strong correlation between IQ and the wealth of nations is of world-historical importance. From now on, no public intellectual can seriously claim to be attempting to understand how the world works unless he takes IQ into account. How much can we trust these IQ results? As soon as I received the book, I turned to Appendix 1, where Lynn and Vanhanen describe all 168 national IQ studies they've found - an average of just over two per country. Are the results internally consistent? In other words, when there are multiple studies for a single country, do they tend to give roughly the same answer? I expected a sizable amount of internal divergence. I spent 18 years in the marketing research industry, so I know how expensive it is to come up with a nationally representative sample. Further, Lynn and Vanhanen use results from quite different IQ tests. They rely most on the non-verbal Raven's Progressive Matrices, which were designed to be used across cultures, even by illiterates. Yet, they also have a lot of results from the Wechsler exams, which are more culture dependent - the Wechsler include a vocabulary subtest, for example. And they report results from other IQ tests, including a few from the oddball Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Man test. Also, sample sizes vary dramatically, from a few dozen in some obscure countries to 64,000 for one American study. Finally, some studies were of children, others of adults. This doesn't sound promising. Nevertheless, the results show a high degree of internal consistency. Here are the first eight countries for which they have multiple scores: Argentina: 93 and 98
Australia: 97, 98, and 99
Austria: 101, 103
Belgium: 99, 103, 98
Brazil: 88, 84, 90, and 85
Bulgaria: 94, 91
China: 100, 92.5, 103.4
Democratic Republic of Congo: 73, 72 That's not bad at all. In fact, leaving aside China, the results are remarkably consistent. There are, of course, a few countries for which different studies came up with quite divergent results, especially Poland, where the two scores Lynn and Vanhanen found were 92 and 106. Still, the correlation among results when there are two or more studies for a country is a striking 0.94. You shouldn't take every score on faith. The reported IQ for Israel (only 94????!!!) has elicited much criticism. Lynn has replied that he wanted to publish the data as he found it, even if some of it looked implausible. His hope is to encourage further research to resolve seeming anomalies. The IQ structures of the two giga-countries, China and India, demand more intense study, in part because the future history of the world will hinge in no small part on their endowments of human capital. The demography of India is especially complex due to its caste system, which resembles Jim Crow on steroids and acid. By discouraging intermarriage, caste has subdivided the Indian people into an incredible number of micro-races. In India, according to the dean of population genetics, L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, "The total number of endogamous communities today is around 43,000..." We know that some of those communities - such as the Zoroastrian Parsees of Bombay - are exceptionally intelligent. But we can't say with any confidence what is the long run IQ potential of Indians overall. Their current IQ score (81) is low, especially compared to China (100), the other country with hundreds of millions of poor peasants. Yet, keep in mind just how narrow life in rural India was for so long. In 1952, on the fifth anniversary of independence, the Indian government commissioned a survey to find out if the average Indian villager had heard yet that the British had gone. The study was quietly cancelled when early results showed that the average villager had never heard that the British had ever arrived! It appears likely that some combination of malnutrition, disease, inbreeding, lack of education, lack of mental stimulation, lack of familiarity with abstract reasoning and so forth can keep people from reaching their genetic potential for IQ. Lynn himself did early studies demonstrating that malnutrition drives down IQ. The co-authors conclude their book by recommending that "The rich countries' economic aid programs for the poor countries should be continued and some of these should be directed at attempting to increase the intelligence levels of the populations of the poorer countries by improvements in nutrition and the like." A clear example of how a bad environment can hurt IQ can be seen in the IQ scores for sub-Saharan African countries. They average only around 70. In contrast, African-Americans average about 85. It appears unlikely that African-Americans' white admixture can account for most of this 15-point gap because they are only around 17%-18% white on average, according to the latest genetic research. (Thus African-Americans white genes probably couldn't account for more than 3 points of the gap between African-Americans and African-Africans.) This suggests that the harshness of life in Africa might be cutting ten points or more off African IQ scores. Similarly, West Africans are significantly shorter in height than their distant cousins in America, most likely due to malnutrition and infections. The two African-born NBA superstars, Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo, are both from the wa-benzi [people of the (Mercedes ) Benz]upper class. Only the elite in Africa gets enough food and health care to grow up to be NBA centers. This also implies that African-Americans might be able to achieve higher IQs too, although the environmental gap between white Americans and black Americans appears to be much smaller than between black Americans and black Africans. As I pointed out in VDARE in 2000, the most promising avenue for improving African-Americans' IQs is by promoting breastfeeding among blacks mothers, who nurse their babies at much lower rates than whites. In fact, we know that IQ is not completely fixed over time because raw test scores have been rising for decades, about 2 to 3 points per decade. To counteract this, the IQ test-making firms periodically make it harder - in absolute terms - to achieve a score of 100. Lynn was possibly the first scientist to make this phenomenon widely known, although New Zealand political scientist James Flynn has gotten more credit for this recently. And, indeed, Lynn and Vanhanen scrupulously adjust the test results in their book to account for when each test was taken.
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