The role of IQ and education in predicting later labor market outcomes - Implications for affirmative action

The authors examine the complex relationships among intelligence, education al attainment, and labor market outcomes. First discussed are differences b etween psychometric and bioecological approaches to the study of intelligen ce. Next, the authors describe a study examining the relationship among sco res on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) taken in adolescence, edu cational attainment, and the labor market outcomes of wages, personal incom e, and occupational status 15 years later. At all levels of labor market ou tcomes, there were greater mean Black-White differences for AFQT scores tha n for educational attainment. Educational attainment strongly mediated the effects of AFQT scores; there were also substantial racial and gender diffe rences in effects. The article closes by considering the implications of us ing intelligence test scores and educational attainment as selection criter ia.