The top one percent can have an outsized influence on the whole field. That's the Pareto principle. The minority of superstars in the field produces most of the popular or important work and receives the lion's share of the rewards.
As the first article below points out, we should expect economists in general to be richer than they are because they're supposed to have exact knowledge of how economies work.
The leading economists who do cash in do so not because their knowledge is so crucial, but because failure is often promoted, given the Peter principle. There are lots of bullshit jobs in corporate sectors, including vice presidents, office administrators, and yes, consultants. It's an old boys club, etc.
And management consultant firms are secretive about their earnings, so researching how much money the top business consultants are making isn't so easy, as the documentary "Inside Job" showed, and as the bottom two articles point out.
