There is a third factor that both BIS and THE ignore: tournament theory. If there is a set amount of productivity possible in a field, and the people in the field are selected according some ranking, then improving a person’s ranking will increase their productivity, but it doesn’t follow that the productivity of society as a whole is improved.
For instance, if you look at how much coaching a high school baseball player gets, and whether they get into MLB, you’ll probably find a correlation. So giving a student coaching increases their productivity. But that doesn’t mean that society benefits from the student getting coaching. There is a finite number of players in MLB, and a finite amount of benefit that society receives from it, and coaching a particular student just means that the benefits move from some other student who would have become a professional baseball player.
For example, in some societies, women might generally earn less than men at the same rank despite having the same qualifications, indicating that factors other than educational achievement and productivity are at play.
Not necessarily. Besides the (unlikely, but cannot be dismissed a priori) hypothesis that women inherently less productivity, if there is prejudice against women, then that can cause women to be less productive. For instance, if judges are less likely to rule in favor a female lawyer, then women make less productive lawyers. “Productivity” isn’t merely a property of a person’s inherent abilities, it’s also influenced by the society they live.
There is a third factor that both BIS and THE ignore: tournament theory. If there is a set amount of productivity possible in a field, and the people in the field are selected according some ranking, then improving a person’s ranking will increase their productivity, but it doesn’t follow that the productivity of society as a whole is improved.
For instance, if you look at how much coaching a high school baseball player gets, and whether they get into MLB, you’ll probably find a correlation. So giving a student coaching increases their productivity. But that doesn’t mean that society benefits from the student getting coaching. There is a finite number of players in MLB, and a finite amount of benefit that society receives from it, and coaching a particular student just means that the benefits move from some other student who would have become a professional baseball player.
Not necessarily. Besides the (unlikely, but cannot be dismissed a priori) hypothesis that women inherently less productivity, if there is prejudice against women, then that can cause women to be less productive. For instance, if judges are less likely to rule in favor a female lawyer, then women make less productive lawyers. “Productivity” isn’t merely a property of a person’s inherent abilities, it’s also influenced by the society they live.