EH.Net Abstracts in Economic History

               EHS Abstract Submission
                    (c) 1997 EH.Net
-----------------------------------------------------------
              Name:  Peter Temin
               Email:  ptemin at mit.edu
         Institution:  MIT
 
         Co-author:  None
 
             Title:  The American Business Elite in Historical
Perspective  

  Internet Address
of abstracted work:  Not available on the Internet  

           By mail:  
                     Professor Peter Temin
                     Department of Economics, MIT
                     Room E52-280A, 50 Memorial Drive
                     Cambridge, MA 02142-1347  USA

          Language:  English
 
          Abstract:
        This paper replicates a classic study of the American
business elite.  The older study, done a half-century ago,
reported the composition of business leaders a century ago.  I
have drawn a sample of business leaders today to discover how
much the composition of the American business elite has changed.
As in the earlier study, the business elite is compared to a
sample of political leaders.  I find that democratization of the
business elite has progressed only slightly in the past century,
nowhere near as much as democratization of the political elite.
Despite the myriad things that have changed in America in the
last century, the composition of the business elite appears
recognizably the same.

 
      Bibliography:  Temin, Peter.  "The American Business Elite
in Historical Perspective."  Prepared for a conference on Elites,
Minorities and Economic Growth at Bar-Ilan University, Israel,
June 2-5, 1997.  
 
                  Subject:  X
 Geographical Area:  7
      Country/Region:  USA
            Time Period:  9
 
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