Cognitive Pareto and the economy

From the field of psychology so to be taken with a pinch of salt. From Cognitive Capitalism: The Effect of Cognitive Ability on Wealth, as Mediated Through Scientific Achievement and Economic Freedom by Heiner Rindermann and James Thompson. From the Abstract.

Traditional economic theories stress the relevance of political, institutional, geographic, and historical factors for economic growth. In contrast, human-capital theories suggest that peoples’ competences, mediated by technological progress, are the deciding factor in a nation’s wealth. Using three large-scale assessments, we calculated cognitive-competence sums for the mean and for upper- and lower-level groups for 90 countries and compared the influence of each group’s intellectual ability on gross domestic product. In our cross-national analyses, we applied different statistical methods (path analyses, bootstrapping) and measures developed by different research groups to various country samples and historical periods. Our results underscore the decisive relevance of cognitive ability—particularly of an intellectual class with high cognitive ability and accomplishments in science, technology, engineering, and math—for national wealth. Furthermore, this group’s cognitive ability predicts the quality of economic and political institutions, which further determines the economic affluence of the nation. Cognitive resources enable the evolution of capitalism and the rise of wealth.

This appears to be suggesting that the cognitive top 20% drive the economy of a nation. However weak or strong that top 20% might be, shapes the strength and weakness of the national outcomes. Not entirely consistent with other research I have read which focuses on the IQ of whole populations rather than the relative quintile achievements. Intriguing observation (if real) none-the-less.