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The problem of the 21st century: Economics faculty and the color line

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  • Price, Gregory N.

Abstract

With historical data on black economist hirings in Ph.D. granting economics programs and the supply of new black economics doctorates in the United States, this paper examines the conventional pipeline explanation for the dearth of blacks on economics faculties. Parameter estimates from count data specifications of a demand-supply relationship reveal that increases in the supply of new black economics doctorates do not increase, but instead decrease the likelihood of a Ph.D. granting economics department hiring black economists. Our results suggest that black economists are underrepresented on the faculties of Ph.D. granting economics departments by at least a factor of two. Instead of there simply being too few blacks earning economics doctorates to fill faculty jobs--the so-called pipeline problem--there appears to be a "color line" problem in that race explains the underrepresentation of blacks on the economics faculties of Ph.D. granting departments in the U.S.

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  • Price, Gregory N., 2009. "The problem of the 21st century: Economics faculty and the color line," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 331-343, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:38:y:2009:i:2:p:331-343
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    2. Lucia Foster & Erika McEntarfer & Danielle H. Sandler, 2022. "Diversity and Labor Market Outcomes in the Economics Profession," Working Papers 22-26, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Anusha Chari & Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, 2017. "Gender Representation in Economics Across Topics and Time: Evidence from the NBER Summer Institute," Working Papers 2017-081, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    4. Lisa D. Cook & Chaleampong Kongcharoen, 2010. "The Idea Gap in Pink and Black," NBER Working Papers 16331, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Anusha Chari & Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, 2017. "Gender representation in economics across topics and time: evidence from the NBER," Staff Reports 825, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    6. Gregory N. Price & Rhonda V. Sharpe, 2020. "Is the Economics Knowledge Production Function Constrained by Race in the USA?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(2), pages 614-629, June.

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    Black economists Discrimination;

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