Theminorityreport
theMINORITYREPORT The annual news of the AEA’s Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession, the National Economic Association, and the American Society of Hispanic Economists
Issue 13 | Winter 2021
CORONA, THE GREAT EXPOSER: HOW THE PANDEMIC HAS EXACERBATED INEQUALITIES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY
By Carycruz M. Bueno, Brown University, and Cruz Caridad Bueno, SUNY–New Paltz
Communities of color in the United States and Council 2020, Berman 2020, New York State Attorney throughout the world are suffering because of the General 2020). The heightened risk of physical and COVID-19 pandemic. This health crisis has not just verbal attacks creates an untenable situation for Asian eroded the well-being of people of color (POC); it has Americans, who must both protect themselves from the exacerbated and brought to the forefront the racial, virus and attempt to stay safe amid the violence directed health, economic, gender, and education inequalities at at them. the foundation of American society. The visible eruption of a multiethnic, multiracial, multigenerational, and As coronavirus-related hate crimes against Asian international movement led by Black activists within Americans were beginning to be documented in early the context of the pandemic is not a coincidence but a March, Essence magazine was among the first media deliberate, organized effort to demand social justice for outlets to document the health impacts of the virus the very communities where this health crisis is felt most on Black communities and POC (Christian 2020). On deeply. Coronavirus is not the “great equalizer” but the April 2, 2020, Essence, citing economic and healthcare great exposer of how race in this country overdetermines discrimination, reported that Black people constituted social, health, and economic outcomes for POC. 40% of coronavirus-related deaths in Michigan despite being only 14% of the population (Bandele 2020). Amid some lawmakers’ use of the racist terms “China A week later, the New York Times stated that the virus” and “kung flu virus” and the media’s failure coronavirus was “killing Black and Latino people in New to report that the coronavirus actually arrived in the York City at twice the rate that it is killing white people” United States via Europe (not Asia), the Asian American (Mays and Newman 2020). Native American communities community was among the first to feel the impacts of are 19 times more likely to not have running water than COVID-19 in the form of physical and verbal assaults. white communities (DigDeep and US Water Alliance The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council has found 2019), and their coronavirus-related death rate is 3.3 an increase in the reporting of hate crimes against Asian times higher than for whites (APM Research Lab 2020). Americans, with over 2,500 cases filed from March to early August 2020 (Asian Pacific Policy and Planning continued on page 4 }
THE MINORITY REPORT CSMGEP MEMBERS Advancing Minority Representation Gary Hoover, co-chair CONTENTS University of Oklahoma in the Economics Field Ebonya Washington, co-chair The Minority Report is a joint publication Yale University FEATURES of the American Economic Association’s Francisca Antman Committee on the Status of Minority (ex officio) University of Colorado–Boulder Corona, the Great Exposer: How Groups in the Economics Profession Amanda Bayer the Pandemic Has Exacerbated (CSMGEP), the American Society of Swarthmore College Inequalities in American Society Hispanic Economists (ASHE), and the by Carycruz M. Bueno, Brown National Economic Association (NEA). Vicki Bogan Cornell University University, and Cruz Caridad Bueno, Published annually, The Minority Report SUNY–New Paltz...... 1, 4-6 showcases the people, programs, Renee Bowen research, and activities of the three University of California, San Diego Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander groups, which together work to increase Lisa D. Cook and 100 Years of African the representation of minorities in the (ex officio) Michigan State University American Economics economics profession. by Nina Banks, Kalena Cortes Texas A&M University Bucknell University...... 9-12 Committee on the Status of Minority Jose Fernandez Making It Through: Coping Groups in the Economics Profession was established by the University of Louisville Hacks for Underrepresented (CSMGEP) American Economic Association (AEA) Trevon Logan Minorities in Economics in 1968 to increase the representation of (ex-officio) The Ohio State University Graduate School and Beyond minorities in the economics profession, by Arkey Barnett and Ebonya Marie Mora (ex officio) University of Missouri–St. Louis Washington, Yale University...... 15-17 primarily by broadening opportunities for the training of underrepresented James Peoples Jr. minorities. CSMGEP, which is composed University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee PIPELINE of economists from all areas of the Perry Singleton PROGRAMS profession, also works to ensure that Syracuse University issues related to the representation of Summer Training Program minorities are considered in the work of Omari Swinton (ex officio) Howard University and Scholarship Program . . 3 the AEA, and engages in other efforts to promote the advancement of minorities in Ivan Vidangos Mentoring Program . . . . 3 the economics profession. Federal Reserve Board Summer Economics www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/ Fellows Program ...... 3 csmgep ASHE OFFICERS Mónica García-Pérez The American Society of Hispanic (president) St. Cloud State University ECONOMISTS Economists (ASHE) is a professional association of economists whose primary Fernando Lozano TO WATCH (past president) Pomona College goals are promoting the vitality of Randall Akee Hispanics in the economics profession, Jose Manuel Fernandez Small Groups, Big Economic promoting rigorous research on economic (president-elect) University of Louisville Stories...... 7-8 and policy issues affecting U.S. Hispanic Sue Stockly Nada Eissa communities, and engaging more Hispanic (vice president of communications) Eastern Watching the Economy at Americans to effectively participate in the New Mexico University Work in Current Events economics profession. Alberto Dávila and Public Policy...... 13-14 www.asheweb.net (secretary-treasurer) Southeast Missouri State University Darrick Hamilton The Economics of Inequality...... 18-19 National Economic Association (NEA) was founded in 1969 as the NEA OFFICERS Caucus of Black Economists to promote Linwood Tauheed ECONOMIC the professional lives of minorities within (president) University of Missouri–Kansas City JOBS BEYOND the profession. In addition to continuing its founding mission, the organization Nina Banks (president-elect) Bucknell University ACADEMIA. . 20-22 is particularly interested in producing and distributing knowledge of economic Omari Swinton (past president) Howard University ANNOUNCEMENTS issues that are of exceptional interest to promoting economic growth among native Romie Tribble Jr. & ACTIVITIES. . 23-31 and immigrant African Americans, Latinos, (secretary) Spelman College and other people of color. Hazel Robinson www.neaecon.org (treasurer) BWI Marshall Airport
2 theMINORITYREPORT PIPELINE PROGRAMS
} Summer Training Program and Scholarship Program
The AEA Summer Training Program and Scholarship Program promote diversity by preparing talented undergraduates for doctoral programs in economics and related disciplines. Hosted at Howard University, students receive eight weeks of intensive training in microeconomics, mathematics, econometrics, and research methods from prominent faculty and economists at the Federal Reserve Board. Students have the opportunity to earn up to 12 college credits, participate in experiential learning, and join inclusive mentoring groups. For more information and to apply: Go to http://economics.howard.edu/aeasp Application deadline: January 31, 2021
} Mentoring Program
Established in the mid-1990s, the AEA Mentoring Program (formerly known as the Pipeline Program) is generously supported by the National Science Foundation. The program matches Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American economics PhD students and new PhD graduates with mentors in the field, and also facilitates networking between senior economists and students at all stages of the educational and career pipelines. One of the program’s main activities is the Summer Mentoring Pipeline Conference, which brings together the mentees in the program, their mentors, other senior economists in and outside of academia, and the undergraduate students in the AEA Summer Training Program. Moreover, the Mentoring Program provides limited funding to support the research and travel of the mentees, including for presentations at major conferences. For applications and more information: See the AEA website: https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/csmgep/mentoring [email protected] @AEAMP1 Deadlines for funding requests: March 1, August 15, and October 1, 2021
} Summer Economics Fellows Program
Sponsored by the American Economic Association and the National Science Foundation, the Summer Economics Fellows Program is designed to increase the participation and advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in economics.
Fellows spend a summer in residence at a sponsoring research institution, such as a Federal Reserve Bank, another public agency, or a nonprofit research institution. Summer economics fellowships are available to senior graduate students and junior faculty.
Fellowships are open to all economists without regard to gender or minority status, although the goal of the program— advancing the careers of women and underrepresented minorities—will drive the selection process.
Application deadline: February 1, 2021 For more information: Visit the AEA website at https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/summer-fellows-program
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 3 } continued from page 1
By early April it was clear that the lack of a coherent and figures underestimate the total impact on employment, effective government response to the public health crisis, given low response rates, underemployment, errors in coupled with the long-standing levels of discrimination employment classification, and people being discouraged and inequality in America, was killing Black and Brown from applying for unemployment benefits, such as by people at much higher rates than whites. The much long wait times for applying for benefits (Kochhar 2020). higher death rate among POC versus white people is Furthermore, it is important to note that Native American rooted not only in long-standing racism in the healthcare numbers are not reported separately, raising the question system but also in the fact that POC in America are of how bad their labor outcomes are, given the lack of less likely to have health data for this community. insurance (Grooms, Ortega, and Rubalcaba 2020). Not Unemployment creates a to be overlooked is the host of economic problems mental health crisis that has for POC and their families: been exacerbated by these By early April it was clear food insecurity, housing disparities in physical health: that the lack of a coherent insecurity, potential lack Black essential healthcare of access to healthcare, workers report higher and effective government and gender violence in the levels of anxiety and Latinx household. For example, the essential workers report response to the public Urban Institute, using data higher levels of depression health crisis, coupled with from the U.S. Census Bureau when compared with white Household Pulse Survey, essential workers (Grooms, the long-standing levels of reported: “About a quarter of Black and Latino renters Ortega, Rubalcaba, and discrimination and inequality Vargas 2020). who responded to the survey in America, was killing Black did not pay or deferred rent Compounding the health in May, compared with 14 crisis is the economic crisis and Brown people at much percent of white renters. due to the shutdowns And while a quarter of white intended to slow the spread higher rates than whites. renters expressed slight or no of the virus. In Q2 annualized confidence in their ability to GDP retracted by 32.9%; pay rent in June, nearly half this unprecedented decline, of Black and Latino renters exacerbated by government expressed similar concern” stimulus focused more on (Greene and McCargo 2020). businesses rather than families and individuals, impacts Housing insecurity remains a looming threat, and the every economic aspect of the lives of POC. To begin, stalemate in Washington over the second round of larger percentages of Black and Latinx individuals work stimulus disproportionately impacted families of color in jobs that cannot be done remotely, resulting in greater (Badger et al. 2020). unemployment among these groups and greater health risks for those whose jobs remained, such as essential At the intersection of race, class, and gender workers (Gould and Shierholz 2020). In the second quarter discrimination is the plight of Black and Latinx women of 2020, unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor during this health and economic crisis. The virus and Statistics (BLS) were Black 16.1%, Latinx 16.7%, and its mishandling by federal lawmakers is not just killing Asian 14.3%, whereas whites had 12.0%; when gender is Black and Brown people; the difficulty of life amid the considered, Latinx women had the highest unemployment pandemic is stoking fires of anger and tension among rate at 18.7%, followed by Black women at 16.2% (BLS people living in already marginalized communities, 2020).1 Using BLS monthly data, Dr. Diane Lim notes leading to violence that often falls disproportionately that Asian women experienced the largest absolute on women of color. Bueno and Henderson (2017) find increase in unemployment, 8.5 percentage points, from that economic variables are correlated with women’s February to August 2020 (Lim 2020). These substantial reporting of experiencing intimate partner violence; for
4 theMINORITYREPORT example, women who are employed and women who shutdown have combined to create a dismal outlook report having money for their own use are both less likely for people of color in the United States. The brutal to report experiencing intimate partner violence. This murders of Mr. George Floyd and Ms. Breonna Taylor pandemic and its ramifications (such as the shift to virtual within the context of a health crisis has intensified the learning and working from home) are pushing women out movement to address racism, white supremacy, and the of the labor force and into precarious situations. Previous inequities that the coronavirus has worsened. Previous research has documented the heightened risk of gender research shows that civil rights protests and riots are violence that women of color experience (Blackburn positively correlated with improvements in the wages Center 2017), and current research has reported how of Black people vis-à-vis whites (King 2005); given the coronavirus-related teleworking, unemployment, shelter- rise in protests, we are hopeful that positive economic in-place mandates, and remote learning for students changes will follow for POC. In addition to the need to have coincided with increased levels of intimate partner continue demanding change at the local and state levels violence (Lee et al. 2002, Usher et al. 2020). is the need for a comprehensive federal economic plan to address the economic concerns of POC and other Related to the issue of women’s increased burdens vulnerable populations in the short run and the long is the impact of the coronavirus on the education of run. There is a clear and pressing need for universal children of color. Students and families of color have healthcare, fiscal policy that promotes full employment, been stressed from daycare through college level due consistent stimulus payments to households to increase to the interruption of in-person schooling by COVID-19. consumption to boost GDP, funding of education that Mothers especially are impacted: women are three benefits children of color, resources for women and girls times more likely than men to be the sole care provider to protect themselves from violence during this crisis, for children during the pandemic (Miller 2020). For and the need for reparations to the Black community to students, attending a full-time virtual school reduces begin to correct the structural inequality and racism at the achievement for elementary and middle school students foundation of American economic growth. n and graduation rates for high school students (Bueno 2020). Early evidence suggests that Black, Latinx, and low-income students have been disproportionately affected in terms of education loss during the pandemic REFERENCES (Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker 2020); some APM Research Lab. 2020. “The Color of Coronavirus: COVID-19 reasons are the lack of space to work and the higher Deaths by Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.” September 16, 2020. likelihood of COVID-19 infection and unemployment in https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race. these groups, on top of the already existing Black–white Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. 2020. “Attacks and Latinx–white achievement gaps from kindergarten Against AAPI Community Continue to Rise During through college education (Center for Education Policy Pandemic.” Press release, August 27, 2020. http://www. Analysis n.d.). Meanwhile, wealthy Americans have turned asianpacificpolicyandplanningcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/ to “learning pods” (Bastian 2020), banding together PRESS_RELEASE_National-Report_August27_2020.pdf. with other well-off families for small-group learning and Badger, Emily, Alicia Parlapiano, and Quoctrung Bui. 2020. sometimes even hiring tutors or teachers, which will “Why Black Workers Will Hurt the Most if Congress Doesn’t further widen the achievement gap along racial and Extend Jobless Benefits.” New York Times, August 7, 2020. economic lines. The current administration’s demand https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/upshot/unemployment- during summer 2020 to open schools without providing benefits-racial-disparity.html. the proper funding to do so safely overwhelmingly Bandele, Asha. 2020. “Black People Make Up 40 Percent of impacts vulnerable populations. On the first day of COVID-19 Deaths in Michigan.” Essence, April 2, 2020. https:// school, 74% of the 100 largest districts opened remote www.essence.com/news/michigan-black-people-coronavirus- only (Education Week 2020), but it is unclear how many of covid-19/. these students had adequate equipment, Wi-Fi, parental Bastian, Rebekah. 2020. “How Educational Inequality in guidance, or space to successfully learn. America Could Be Impacted by the Homeschooling Pod Frenzy.” Forbes, July 19, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ The level of racial economic inequality, the lack of rebekahbastian/2020/07/19/how-educational-inequality-in- universal government-sponsored healthcare, the america-could-be-impacted-by-the-homeschooling-pod- overwhelming number of POC deemed essential frenzy/. workers, and the massive number of layoffs due to the continued on next page }
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Berman, Robby. 2020. “COVID-19 and Education Week. 2020. “School Districts’ More So for Women and Certain Other the Surge in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes.” Reopening Plans: A Snapshot.” July 15, Groups.” Pew Research Center, June 30, Medical News Today, August 2, 2020. 2020; updated October 16, 2020. 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/ tank/2020/06/30/unemployment-rate-is- articles/covid-19-and-the-surge-in-anti- multimedia/school-districts-reopening- higher-than-officially-recorded-more-so- asian-hate-crimes. plans-a-snapshot.html. for-women-and-certain-other-groups/. Blackburn Center. 2017. “The Impact of Gould, Elise, and Heidi Shierholz. 2020. Lee, Robert K., Vetta L. Sanders Gender-Based Violence on Women of “Not Everybody Can Work from Home: Thompson, and Mindy B. Mechanic. Color.” February 8, 2017. https://www. Black and Hispanic Workers Are Much 2002. “Intimate Partner Violence and blackburncenter.org/post/2017/02/08/ Less Likely to Be Able to Telework.” Women of Color: A Call for Innovations.” the-impact-of-gender-based-violence- Economic Policy Institute, Working American Journal of Public Health 92 on-women-of-color. Economics Blog, March 19, 2020. https:// (4): 530–34. https://doi.org/10.2105/ www.epi.org/blog/black-and-hispanic- AJPH.92.4.530. Bueno, Carycruz. 2020. “Bricks and workers-are-much-less-likely-to-be-able- Mortar vs. Computers and Modems: Lim, Diane. 2020. “More Pictures on to-work-from-home/. The Impacts of Enrollment in K-12 the Pandemic ‘She-cession’ by Race.” Virtual Schools.” EdWorkingPaper: Greene, Solomon, and Alanna McCargo. EconomistMom.com, September 8, 2020. 20-250. Retrieved from Annenberg 2020. “New Data Suggest COVID-19 Is https://economistmom.com/2020/09/08/ Institute at Brown University. https://doi. Widening Housing Disparities by Race more-pictures-on-the-pandemic-she- org/10.26300/kahb-5v62. and Income.” Urban Institute, Urban Wire: cession-by-race/. Housing and Housing Finance, May 29, Bueno, Cruz Caridad, and Errol A. Mays, Jeffery C., and Andy Newman. 2020. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/ Henderson. 2017. “Bargaining or 2020. “Virus Is Twice as Deadly for Black new-data-suggest-covid-19-widening- Backlash? Evidence on Intimate Partner and Latino People Than Whites in N.Y.C.” housing-disparities-race-and-income. Violence from the Dominican Republic.” New York Times, April 8, 2020. https:// Feminist Economics 23 (4): 90–116. Grooms, Jevay, Alberto Ortega, and www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/nyregion/ https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2017.1 Joaquín Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba. coronavirus-race-deaths.html. 292360. 2020. “The COVID-19 Public Health Miller, Jenesse. 2020. “COVID-19 and Economic Crises Leave Vulnerable Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2020. Labor Pandemic Has Hit Women Hard, Populations Exposed.” Brookings, The Force Statistics from the Current Especially Working Mothers.” University Hamilton Project, August 13, 2020. Population Survey: E-16. Unemployment of Southern California, June 18, https://www.hamiltonproject.org/blog/ rates by age, sex, race, and Hispanic or 2020. https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/ the_covid_19_public_health_and_ Latino ethnicity. https://www.bls.gov/ stories/3234/covid-19-pandemic-has- economic_crises_leave_vulnerable_ web/empsit/cpsee_e16.htm. hit-women-hard-especially-working- populations_exposed. mothers/. Center for Education Policy Analysis. n.d. Grooms, Jevay, Alberto Ortega, Joaquín “Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gaps.” New York State Attorney General. Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba, and Edward Stanford University. https://cepa.stanford. 2020. “AG James Launches Hotline to Vargas. 2020. “Racial and Ethnic edu/educational-opportunity-monitoring- Combat Coronavirus Hate Crimes and Disparities: Essential Workers, Mental project/achievement-gaps/race/. Xenophobic Rhetoric.” Press release, Health, and the Coronavirus Pandemic.” March 23, 2020. https://ag.ny.gov/press- Christian, Tanya A. 2020. “What the July 31, 2020. https://static1.squarespace. release/2020/ag-james-launches-hotline- Spread of the Coronavirus Means for com/static/57c9d7602994ca1ac7d06b71/ combat-coronavirus-hate-crimes-and- Black Communities.” Essence, March 2, t/5f240c051228ea67b1a60 xenophobic-rhetoric. 2020. https://www.essence.com/news/ 1c0/1596197895929/Race_Ethnicity_ coronavirus-health-implications-black- COVID19_July_2020.pdf. Opportunity Insights Economic communities/. Tracker. 2020. Education data. https:// King, Mary C. 2005. “‘Keeping People tracktherecovery.org/. DigDeep and US Water Alliance. 2019. in Their Place’: The Economics of Racial Closing the Water Access Gap in Violence.” In African Americans in the Usher, Kim, Navjot Bhullar, Joanne Durkin, the United States: A National Action U.S. Economy, edited by Cecilia Conrad, Naomi Gyamfi, and Debra Jackson. Plan. http://uswateralliance.org/sites/ John Whitehead, Patrick L. Mason, and 2020. “Family Violence and COVID-19: uswateralliance.org/files/Closing%20 James Stewart, 110–17. Lanham, MD: Increased Vulnerability and Reduced the%20Water%20Access%20Gap%20 Rowman & Littlefield. Options for Support.” International in%20the%20United%20States_DIGITAL. Journal of Mental Health Nursing 29 Kochhar, Rakesh. 2020. “Unemployment pdf. (4): 549–52. ht tps://doi.org/10.1111/ Rate Is Higher Than Officially Recorded, inm.12735.
1 The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the terms Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino; we use the terms Black and Latinx for these groups.
6 theMINORITYREPORT ECONOMISTS TO WATCH
SMALL GROUPS, BIG ECONOMIC STORIES
Randall Akee Associate Professor, Departments of Public Policy and the American Indian Studies Program, UCLA
Growing up in a single-parent Issues impacting Native and household in a sugarcane plantation Indigenous peoples have remained town in Hawaii where money was a focus of Akee’s research. Another tight was an early introduction to area he’s explored is the effect budget constraints for Randall Akee, of casinos on children living on though he didn’t know the term for it One of the things Native American reservations. In at the time. some cases, revenue from casinos I’m interested in goes to tribal governments to fund But the lessons stuck with him, as housing, schools, and services did his desire to learn more about is opening the in the community. Some tribes the economic forces at work in his also designate cash payments to own life and in the world around him. door for more members, which function as universal These interests led him to enroll in basic income payments. What Akee an Advanced Placement economics underrepresented found in his studies of such payments class in the all–Native Hawaiian high in one tribe is that “when you make school he attended. The teacher minorities in the households and families less poor, piqued his interest even further with their children achieve more.” They this loud-and-clear message to the economics attain higher levels of education and, class: “You Native Hawaiians need to as adults, are more civically engaged. take a stronger interest in economics, profession. And their parents don’t tend to work because otherwise Mr. Charlie will any less, he says. get you.” Of course, his study focused on just So Akee, now an associate professor one small group, as did a different in the Departments of Public research project that focused Policy and the American Indian on immigration patterns among Studies Program at UCLA, headed Micronesians, who face few or no to Dartmouth College with an restrictions on immigration to the economics major firmly in mind. of Hawaii’s Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ Economic Development U.S. given Micronesia’s Compact He continued his exploration of of Free Association with the U.S. economics at Yale, then Harvard, Division in the late 1990s, he looked at programs that could help the government. The people who were at each step focusing on how moving from the Federated States economics affects people and economic outlook of Native Hawaiian communities at a time when the of Micronesia, in the western Pacific groups that standard research often Ocean, to Guam and Hawaii at the overlooks. sugarcane and pineapple industries were in steep decline. time of his research tended to be His early work kept his efforts close to home, quite literally. In the State continued on next page }
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 7 } continued from page 7
highly skilled, with above-average in this as a PhD student going into it education levels, which indicated and there’s no place for you, then why that these immigrants tended to be wouldn’t you go into political science? PROUST positively selected. Or why wouldn’t you go into sociology QUESTIONNAIRE or anthropology for your career? … A salon and parlor game “And those were the things that Having it be an accepted area of of the 19th century, made were interesting to me,” he says. research and acceptable to conduct most famous by Marcel “Who is leaving and who are they research on this and to publish on this Proust’s answers, the Proust leaving behind, and then what are the and to get tenure with this is going to Questionnaire (adapted here) secondary issues because of that?” be important in the future for attracting gets to the heart of things... While small groups may seem a broader array of individuals.” } somewhat insignificant, Akee has To help support more economic What’s on your learned that insights from such studies research of underrepresented nightstand? Two mystery novels and can really say a lot. groups, Akee and some colleagues my Kindle. “That’s been my take on how I do recently launched the Association for my research from the beginning,” he Economic Research of Indigenous } What is an ideal day? explains. “People have said, ‘Why are Peoples, which will facilitate Early morning at my local you studying this? This has no value networking, sponsor events, and coffee shop. Working from to the economics profession.’ And advocate for this area of study. there and home. I’ve always claimed, ‘Ah, but it does.’ The second problem is that the } What trait do you deplore It’s interesting and important in and profession tends to “replicate itself,” of itself, but beyond that, it can also in other people? he says, with those in authority Selfishness. inform us about broader fundamental tending to promote people who questions that we care about in look like them professionally and } What trait do you most economics.” come from a similar background admire in people? Selflessness. Another group, somewhat larger, when it comes to doctoral program admissions, mentoring assignments, that Akee thinks about a lot is } What is your favorite economists themselves. At the Allied job recommendations, and tenure decisions. Decision-makers may extravagance? Social Science Associations annual Baked goods. meeting in early 2020, he participated find “the outsider or the unusual person” harder to evaluate and to in a panel hosted by the AEA and } What is your worst habit? convened by its president, Janet recommend. One potential way to Baked goods. Yellen, titled “How Can Economics solve these problems is through } Solve Its Race Problem?” (AEA implicit bias training, which can help What is your airport vice? Mentoring Program director Trevon decision-makers see beyond what’s Baked goods. Logan and past director Marie Mora established and comfortable and } Mountain or beach also participated. A recording is make room for more perspectives. vacation? available at https://www.aeaweb.org/ “One of the things I’m interested Both. conference/2020/preliminary/2264.) in is opening the door for more } Maynard Keynes or The problem, as Akee sees it, is underrepresented minorities in the economics profession,” says Akee. Milton Friedman? twofold: First, studying the economics Keynes. of race or ethnicity isn’t a standard “Because I think we all benefit from having a broader range of people in field in economics. It gets tucked into } What’s the hardest thing the profession across genders, across labor economics sometimes, but rarely you’ve ever done? is it accepted as its own valid field of national origins, across backgrounds Getting a PhD. study. “That affects how others see of all types, class types as well. So I’m the profession as being open or not,” quite interested in that and I’m happy n he says. “Because if you’re interested to support that.”
8 theMINORITYREPORT SADIE TANNER MOSSELL ALEXANDER AND 100 YEARS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ECONOMICS
By Nina Banks, Bucknell University
The National Economic Association (NEA) is She made recommendations to decrease impediments that commemorating 100 Years of African American prevented migrants from achieving a fair standard of living Economics this year. In 1921, Sadie Tanner Mossell (Mossell 1921). Alexander became the first African American to earn a PhD in economics in the United States. Her achievement Despite her advisors’ support and praise for her prefigured the work of the group described by Patrick outstanding dissertation, no local employer offered Mason (2020) as “the cornerstone economists” for their her employment as an economist. After working for foundational thinking in African American economics, two years in North Carolina as an assistant actuary, she shaped by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements married Raymond Alexander when he finished Harvard underway when they began their graduate studies (mid- Law School, and a year later she entered law school 1960s to mid-1970s). The NEA’s 2021 ASSA sessions will at the University of Pennsylvania. She fought for equal focus on the contributions and intellectual thought of rights and protections for African Americans through these early and influential African American economists. her family law practice, membership in the National Bar Association, and extensive public service that included serving on President Truman’s Civil Rights Committee, WHO WAS SADIE TANNER MOSSELL whose landmark report To Secure These Rights provided ALEXANDER? the foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Born Sadie Mossell into a prominent Black family in Most economists were unaware of Alexander until Philadelphia in 1898, Alexander wrote her dissertation Julianne Malveaux’s seminal publication, “Missed in response to the Great Migration of African Americans Opportunity,” in 1991. Malveaux discussed the from the south to the north. She analyzed obstacles that implications of Alexander’s inability to find employment migrants to Philadelphia encountered in making a living as an economist in terms of its impact on the economics in the city. Their ability to earn a fair standard of living—a profession and how it shaped Alexander’s contributions to living wage—was an important question at the time, scholarly knowledge more generally. I started researching given the hostility they faced from longtime Philadelphia Alexander’s extensive archival records at the University of residents who believed that they were an economic Pennsylvania in 2003 in response to Malveaux’s powerful drain on the city. Her doctoral research countered this analysis. I discovered through meticulous review of assumption. By calculating income needed to cover professional and personal correspondence and speeches expenditures according to family size, Sadie Mossell that Alexander maintained her interest in economic issues determined that the majority (64%) of migrant families were able to meet the standard with their combined earnings. continued on next page }
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and remained active as an economist while working as an attorney. My recovery and dissemination of Sadie Alexander’s economic thought has aimed to bring her analysis into the canon of economic thought. She provided a framework for thinking about connections Alexander between race, markets, law, politics, and power in a liberal democratic order by arguing that the state foreshadowed had an obligation to ensure economic security and well-being as a safeguard for democracy. Drawing the cornerstone on the tradition of political economy in her use of historical analysis and power relations to explain economists in her economic outcomes, Alexander foreshadowed the cornerstone economists in her analysis of structural and analysis of structural ideological factors that sustain racial disparities. Her interdisciplinary training, like theirs, contributed to her and ideological expertise within multiple fields of economics. factors that sustain ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AFRICAN racial disparities. AMERICAN ECONOMISTS
This report lays out ways in which Alexander’s economics framework exemplifies core aspects of Black American economic thought (BAET). BAET provides critical perspectives on economic relations and economic outcomes that distinguish it from mainstream Alexander strongly believed that only government and economics. Below, I briefly discuss some features of court action could diminish employment discrimination. BAET through the work of Alexander and some of the In the post–Civil Rights era, Swinton (1975) explained the cornerstone economists. persistence of racial discrimination through an analysis of Group Analysis factors that determine the absolute and relative positions of subordinate groups. He illustrated that no automatic In neoclassical economics, the individual is the unit market forces will improve the economic position of of analysis; in BAET, the group is the unit of analysis. subordinate groups over time, given inequalities in the Alexander focused on racial conflict between groups of level and structure of opportunities, the distribution of workers and on discriminatory employment practices resources, and high benefits from discrimination. that gave white workers advantages in hiring over Black workers. Stewart (1995) discussed the need for Status of Black Women economists to theorize group behavior by outlining a In the 1930s, Alexander recognized the importance model of intergroup conflict. He argued that economic of Black women’s earnings for family welfare and models are of little relevance to the Black community viewed their status as a reflection of the overall status when they fail to address the effect of group identity of the Black community. She denounced unfair labor on economic behavior. Darity (2005) developed a new laws that undermined Black women’s well-being and field—stratification economics—as an empirical approach disadvantaged them relative to white women. Over fifty that examines the intentional and structural processes years later, Margaret Simms and Malveaux (1986) edited a that create and sustain hierarchies and inequities groundbreaking publication, Slipping through the Cracks: between ascriptively different groups. The Status of Black Women, examining the unique Persistence of Racial Disparities concerns of Black women that are often overlooked in discussions of racial or gender disparities. Like Alexander, BAET recognizes the inability of markets to eliminate Jones (1985: 27) noted that because of Black women’s discrimination based on ascriptive characteristics. community ties, “the economic problems of black
10 theMINORITYREPORT women in general and their problems as workers cannot be separated from the economic plight of the black community.”
Importance of Black Institutions Mainstream economic theories explain racial disparities as outcomes of Black deficits and dysfunctionality. Black economists have dispelled these claims through empirical analyses and instead documented the strengths of African American formations and community institutions. WORK IN PROGRESS Alexander’s scholarly activism through Black institution building (National Bar Association, National Urban Nina Banks’s efforts to recover Sadie Alexander’s League, Delta Sigma Theta) is similar to that of Simms, life as an economist recently culminated in an whose “contribution to the NEA since its founding is edited volume titled Democracy, Race, and Justice: unmatched” (Jones 2018: 188–89). In addition to helping establish and build the NEA as a board member and Select Speeches and Writings of Sadie T.M. president, Simms is an editor of another bedrock of Alexander (Yale University Press). It will be released African American economics: the Review of Black Political on June 15, 2021, the 100th anniversary of the year Economy, the leading journal on the economic status of Black Americans and on racial and ethnic disparities. Sadie Alexander received her doctoral degree. Banks is currently writing a biography of Alexander Racial Justice Epistemology that examines her contributions to civil rights. BAET rejects the contention that economic analyses are value-neutral and objective. Myers (1989) challenged the claim that Black morals largely determine Black welfare, arguing instead that it is “policy makers’ moralizing about the poor, the disadvantaged and the downtrodden” that from 1982 to 1987 might have grown in response to the is often detrimental to Black economic welfare and the mayor’s efforts to increase opportunities for Black-owned creation of effective policies. Given the role of values in businesses. economics, Black economists such as Alexander have openly embraced the moral imperative to achieve racial Public Service Engagement justice for Black people. Richard F. America (1998) used Black economists apply their knowledge to benefit the restitution principle to argue that wrongful gains the Black community through public service with the from past behavior such as slavery must be countered express purpose of combating racial disparities. As through reparations for African Americans as a means for a nonacademic economist, Alexander influenced the achieving redistributive justice. economic status of African Americans through her civic engagement and government service. Bernard Race-Conscious Policies Anderson, professor emeritus at the Wharton School of BAET calls for redistributive policies that are race the University of Pennsylvania, shares with Alexander conscious in order to obtain racial justice. Alexander saw considerable public service in Philadelphia, their city the need for race-conscious policies in the 1930s, when of origin. He has advanced African American interests New Deal programs, although racially neutral on paper, through 30 years in HBCU governance, service as disadvantaged Black workers relative to white workers assistant secretary of labor for employment standards through occupational exclusions and regional variations. during the Clinton administration, and service at the Through case-study analysis, Betsey (1992) demonstrated Rockefeller Foundation, where he was instrumental in the need for race-conscious policies after finding that getting AEA sponsorship for the Summer Institute for Black business ownership in Birmingham, Alabama, Minorities in Economics.
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FROM 1921 TO TODAY: Robert Weaver, Phyllis Wallace, Robert Browne, Andrew Brimmer, Marcus Alexis, and Lloyd Hogan are some of BLACK AMERICAN ECONOMISTS the Black economists who will be commemorated at AT THE FOREFRONT the 2021 ASSA meetings whose pioneering scholarship, leadership, activism, and mentoring shaped the economic The 100th anniversary of Alexander’s doctoral degree thought of our cornerstone economists. Black American in economics provides an opportunity to reflect on the economists—an “elite clan of warrior intellectuals” critical perspectives and activities of Black American (Ruffins 1996)—stand at the forefront of economics for economists to challenge African American oppression. their scholarship on racial oppression and their actions to The list is not long, but it is mighty: Samuel L. Myers Sr., combat it. n
REFERENCES
America, Richard F. 1998. “Reparations and Public Policy.” The Review of Black Political Economy 26 (3): 77–83.
Betsey, Charles L. 1992. “NEA Presidential Address: The Role of Race-Conscious Policies in Addressing Past and Present Discrimination.” The Review of Black Political Economy 21 (2): 5–35.
Darity, William, Jr. 2005. “Stratification Economics: The Role of Intergroup Inequality.” Journal of Economics and Finance 29 (2): 144–53.
Jones, Barbara A. P. 1985. “Black Women and Labor Force Participation: An Analysis of Sluggish Growth Rates.” The Review of Black Political Economy 14: 11–31.
Jones, Barbara A. P. 2018. “Margaret C. Simms: Economist, Educator, Administrator, Organizer, and Mentor.” The Review of Black Political Economy 45 (3): 187–90.
Malveaux, Julianne. 1991. “Missed Opportunity: Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander and the Economics Profession.” The American Economic Review 81 (2): 307–10.
Mason, Patrick. 2020. Email correspondence regarding significance of Black American economists who attended graduate school during the Civil Rights/Black Power era.
Mossell, Sadie Tanner. 1921. The Standard of Living Among One Hundred Negro Migrant Families in Philadelphia. PhD dissertation. Reprinted in Annals of the American Academy of Social and Political Science 98 (1): 173–218.
Myers, Samuel L., Jr. 1989. “NEA Presidential Address: Political Economy, Race, and Morals.” The Review of Black Political Economy 18 (1): 5–15.
Ruffins, Paul. 1996. “Black Economists: An ‘Elite Clan of Warrior Intellectuals.’” Black Issues in Higher Education 13 (19): 18–24.
Simms, Margaret C., and Julianne Malveaux. 1986. Slipping through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
Stewart, James B. 1995. “NEA Presidential Address, 1994: Toward Broader Involvement of Black Economists in Discussions of Race and Public Policy: A Plea for a Reconceptualization of Race and Power in Economic Theory.” The Review of Black Political Economy 23 (3): 13–36.
Swinton, David H. 1975. “Factors Affecting the Future Economic Prospects of Minorities.” The American Economic Review 65 (2): 53–58.
12 theMINORITYREPORT ECONOMISTS TO WATCH WATCHING THE ECONOMY AT WORK IN CURRENT EVENTS AND PUBLIC POLICY
Nada Eissa Associate Professor, Public Policy and Economics, Georgetown University
Photo: Georgetown University
When Nada Eissa moved from Sudan University of California, Berkeley, as Eissa says. But it leaves out those to the United States with her family at an undergraduate that economics who choose not to work or, more age nine, a lot changed. The weather was what she wanted to study. importantly, cannot work. Her was different, and she was no longer findings have suggested flaws in the living within a short drive of her At first, she was most interested design of the program: “We could entire extended family. But most of in macroeconomics. “I was really target the program better and give all, the change in location shifted her fascinated by how the economy more money to poorer people,” perspective of what poverty is and functioned, how the Fed could she says. The next set of questions whom it affects. alter the trajectory of the economy Eissa is hoping to address in her so powerfully and also have this research focus on the impact of the “I think that moving from a poor dramatic impact on people’s EITC on wages of eligible workers. country to a place like the U.S. must lives,” she says. “So the whole big The research will attempt to tease have struck some chord in my mind,” picture was interesting to me.” She out what share of the credit benefits she recalls. entered graduate school at Harvard employers by enabling them to offer intending to study international lower pretax wages. She remained attuned to the macroeconomics, and then, in her economy and its effects on people’s third year, took a class that “opened More recently, her work on taxation lives as she got older, and current a light,” as she describes it, onto has expanded in scope, to include events became the stage on which public finance, which has become the developing countries and field she watched it play out. cornerstone of her work. experiments to understand tax evasion. In Rwanda, she’s working “As a teenager, I was always Much of her research as an associate interested in economic news,” with colleagues and the Revenue professor of public policy at Authority to examine the potential for she says. “Whenever there was Georgetown University and research something about the economy, mystery shoppers to serve as auditors associate at the National Bureau of for the value-added tax. I found myself just listening and Economic Research has been on paying attention.” The 1980s were the design, effects, and sometimes The next questions are always on an exciting (and troubling) time for unintended consequences of taxes Eissa’s mind, including some that anyone interested in economics: and transfers, especially the earned linger from work she did in the Inflation was high, and the Fed’s income tax credit (EITC). Data have early 2000s, upon first arriving at efforts to curb it led to high shown that the program is effective Georgetown, on the impact of unemployment. “Living through in encouraging people to work school choice programs. She and that piqued my interest,” she says, and has resulted in an increase in and she knew as she entered the hourly wages and after-tax incomes, continued on next page }
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colleagues helped gather and analyze various options for investments and March and April, Eissa said, these data from the first federally funded returns as she thought she would days the policy issues that “keep me voucher program, which passed be doing, she was thrown right into up at night” are the deficit—“I’m very in 2004, and found no consistent helping shape the administration’s worried that we’ve cut taxes so much impact on test scores, but a strong policy on recovery in New Orleans and haven’t done anything on the boost to high school graduation. Still and thinking more broadly about spending side, and I think sometime underexamined, Eissa says, is what the federal government’s role after in the near future that’s going to hit happens to public schools when large-scale disasters. Not long after, hard,” she says—and income and vouchers remove their top performers. avian flu started to become an area wealth inequality. How do teachers and administration of concern, and her work shifted to respond, and how does it affect the how government should respond to Across her career, Eissa has studied outcomes for students still enrolled? pandemics. Even though “we finally how government can best support a “These are still questions that are on went back to more sane, normal nation’s people, and how the design my list of things to do,” she says with topics like health insurance,” she says, and administration of taxation can a laugh. she enjoyed the opportunity in that have profound effects, which may role to explore “things I would never be why that last concern weighs so When she started two years of have thought about otherwise.” And heavily on her. service as deputy assistant secretary given the current state of the world, “I think we’re now beginning to see of the Treasury for economic policy, her experience at the Treasury proved her to-do list was clear from the a loss of faith in institutions—people critical to how she’s evaluating the don’t believe that government works start. Her first day was August 29, government response to COVID-19. 2005—the day Hurricane Katrina for them anymore. It all feeds into hit New Orleans. Instead of looking Even before Congress passed $2.3 a worrisome story about where we n at Social Security privatization and trillion of additional spending in could be in a few years.”
PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE A salon and parlor game of the 19th century, made most famous by Marcel Proust’s answers, the Proust Questionnaire (adapted here) gets to the heart of things...
} What’s on your nightstand? } What is your favorite extravagance? Visual Intelligence (Amy Herman) and The World of Upgrading on very long flights. Yesterday (translated by Anthea Bell). } What is your worst habit? } What is an ideal day? Biting my nails. A quiet day. } Mountain or beach vacation? } What trait do you deplore in other people? Mountain. Cruelty. } Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman? } What trait do you most admire in people? Friedman. Fearlessness. } What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? Being a parent.
14 theMINORITYREPORT MAKING IT THROUGH: COPING HACKS FOR UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES IN ECONOMICS GRADUATE SCHOOL AND BEYOND
By Arkey Barnett and Ebonya Washington, Yale University
We do not need AEA reports to tell us that working strategies that are more rarely discussed: confiding in in this profession is tough for underrepresented someone, practicing self-care, and venturing into social racial and/or ethnic minorities. Long before the AEA media. While we draw these lessons from the graduate entered recent conversations on race in economics, school experiences of Black and Brown economists Black, Latinx, and Native American economists and interviewed for Bayer, Hoover, and Washington (2020), prospective economists found ways to survive, often we believe the suggestions are applicable in all stages looking to mentors and strong peer groups for support of the economics pipeline and are even more critical and guidance. In this article, we highlight three coping continued on next page }
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Joining a club or activity on or off campus can allow you not only to de-stress, but also to network and form community with folks outside of your department.
in light of present-day challenges in public health, the time I was seeing a therapist. … I was talking to her economics, and the fight for racial justice. about this program and … my qualms about not feeling good enough,” a respondent preparing for graduate CONFIDE IN SOMEONE school explained. “If it wasn’t for her, I would’ve never applied to [current predoctoral position]. … Because “During my doctorate program, I had my husband,” of her, I reached out to my network of economists … said an African American woman, now an assistant [and] they were all super supportive and gave me more professor. “He didn’t quite always understand what resources.” was going on, but,” she continued, “when he saw me especially frustrated, he would be the one that kind of MAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF AND talked me off the ledge.” PRACTICE SELF-CARE While that respondent’s husband played a critical role in her doctoral completion, other respondents found “I try to do yoga,” a current graduate student shared. that roommates, close friends, or extended family living “I try to make an effort to work out and eat well, even locally or remotely were great people to talk to. A though everyone around me says to just work on my current student suggested that even those who cannot [economics] stuff nonstop and not breathe. Just taking talk back can offer comfort: “I have a dog, and she those little bits of self-care have been really important.” has tons of unexpected expenses because she’s such A professor looking back to their graduate student a goofball. But having support at home,” the student days shared another approach to self-care. “While I stressed, “even her just being happy to see me … is was defending my dissertation and going through all important.” this work, I got a black belt.” The professor explained Sometimes, however, seeking help from loved ones or how joining a martial arts program helped rebuild and comfort from household pets is not enough. Grit and strengthen their self-esteem and could do the same for determination cannot solve all problems, and a therapist others “especially if [in graduate school] you’re dealing or professional counselor may be needed. Although with … gaps in education … or you’re not feeling like some respondents discussed the stigma against therapy you are welcomed.” in their communities, those who used these services Joining a club or activity on or off campus can allow expressed newfound confidence and perspective on you not only to de-stress, but also to network and form their situation. “I was super close to not applying, but at community with folks outside of your department, as
16 theMINORITYREPORT happened for the professor who took martial arts classes. alone” and “safer knowing that there are some people Some respondents joined and even created campus- who care, notice, and will work with me if I try to make based minority-affiliation groups, whose members change too.” exchanged information about scholarship and employment opportunities, in addition to providing one another with Your Twitter activity can be limited to simply reading and companionship and support during the PhD years. Their perhaps liking tweets. Even at that level of engagement, experiences highlight the importance of creating a life you can access information on research, teaching, job outside of the economics department to maintain a healthy opportunities, and more. work-life balance. Just getting started with Econ Twitter? Look for Twitter accounts of economists you admire and see who these VENTURE INTO THE SOCIAL MEDIA economists are following or are being followed by. SPHERE Find posts with hashtags like #econ, #EconTwitter, #blackeconomists, and #economistofcolor to see what “The lack of social capital that comes from being minority economists are tweeting or posting with these labels. You or first-gen is [in] my opinion the thing that hurts progress can also search the Twitter feeds of professional groups the most,” explained a first-generation PhD student. and organizations, including the American Society of She has addressed this problem personally by turning to Hispanic Economists (@ASHE_ASSA), the Committee on Twitter. “I just follow a bunch of women … [and] minority the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession economists that are very, very helpful and … put a lot of (@AEACSMGEP), and the National Economic Association information and advice out there.” (@NEAEcon).
The #EconTwitter hashtag—used by members of the To learn more about the benefits of joining Econ Twitter economics profession engaging on the social media and how to get started, check out Anna Gifty Opoku- platform—continues to gain popularity. And while social Agyeman’s “How to Hack #EconTwitter: A Resource media may suffer from a reputation for nastiness and Guide” and Matt Clancy’s “A Beginner’s Guide to cruelty, respondents have found “Econ Twitter” to be #EconTwitter” on Medium.com. a positive space to interact with individuals around the world, learn about the experiences of minority graduate CONCLUSION students in other schools, and connect to and support one another. These benefits can be especially useful if you There is no one right way or foolproof solution to are a minority economics student who feels alone in your cope with the stressors that underrepresented minority department. students face in economics graduate school. One of the most important strategies is to develop a robust Knowing others share similar interests, views, or network of support. Drawing on qualitative interviews experiences may help you feel seen in a profession that with underrepresented minority economists throughout can sometimes feel isolating. Discussing the recent AEA the pipeline, we have presented a variety of ideas to policy change banning interviews in hotel rooms, a current strengthen and grow your network and help you PhD student noted: “Reading [about the new policy] on withstand the difficulties of economics graduate school Twitter … I realize there are other people fighting for and beyond. n change too.” The respondent expressed feeling “less
REFERENCES
Bayer, Amanda, Gary A. Hoover, and Ebonya Washington. 2020. “How You Can Work to Increase the Presence and Improve the Experience of Black, Latinx, and Native American People in the Economics Profession.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 34 (3): 193–219. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.34.3.193.
Clancy, Matt. 2019. “A Beginner’s Guide to #EconTwitter.” Medium.com, August 6, 2019. https://medium.com/@mattclancy/ a-beginners-guide-to-econtwitter-d237a3a4608b.
Opoku-Agyeman, Anna Gifty. 2020. “How to Hack #EconTwitter: A Resource Guide.” Medium.com, May 27, 2020. https://medium.com/@annagifty/how-to-hack-econtwitter-973d99b37b61.
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 17 ECONOMISTS TO WATCH THE ECONOMICS OF INEQUALITY
Darrick Hamilton University Professor, Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, and Founding Director, Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification and Political Economy, The New School
Someone once referred to Darrick that stratification economics fulfills,” He’s also researched, and advocated Hamilton as a “scholar-preacher,” and Hamilton says. for, a federal jobs guarantee. Like with 33,700 Twitter followers, a TED baby bonds, the idea is to address talk with more than a million and a Much of his research has focused income inequality by opening access half views, and frequent commentary on ways to disrupt the dynamics to resources. Guaranteed employment in news articles and on TV news that perpetuate an unfair status quo would not only help the workers programs, his sermons, so to speak— and replace them with economic themselves by improving work as well as his distinguished publication processes that can open opportunity conditions and lifting people out of record—have a wide reach. to all in America. One such solution poverty or the fear of destitution, he he’s put forth is “baby bonds”—a says, but it also would support the He wears his role as a public program in which the U.S. government country as a whole by directing work intellectual as a badge of honor, would place funds in an account toward infrastructure improvements and uses his pulpit, based on his for each baby born in the country and climate change mitigation. scholarship, to talk about stratification based on the family’s income level. economics, which he describes The funds would become accessible “It could offer us the ability to as “understanding the persistent when the baby reaches adulthood, reimagine the type of future that structural disparities associated ensuring every American, regardless we want with public and physical with one’s identity as it relates to of familial wealth or economic status, infrastructure,” Hamilton says. economic, education, and health has the resources needed to attain well-being.” wealth-building milestones like higher In a paper titled “What We Get education, homeownership, and Wrong About Closing the Racial Traditionally, as economics has looked entrepreneurship. As Hamilton points Wealth Gap,” published in 2018, at what gets produced and how it gets out, the U.S. government has long Hamilton and several coauthors distributed, there has been a giant provided programs to boost such gathered sobering data about modern blind spot, says Hamilton, the Henry actions, but people of color have disparities in the U.S. economy and Cohen Professor of Economics and largely been shut out of them. not just who is affected, but why. And Urban Policy and university professor the why is something economists at The New School in New York City A program like baby bonds would and everyone else have been getting and founding director of the school’s be “very consistent with American wrong for decades, he says. new Institute for the Study of Race, history of a government seeding a Stratification and Political Economy. population with assets so that they “When it comes to understanding What gets missed is how identity— can have economic security in their inequality, our perspective of race, gender, and more—and deeply life,” he says. “What is inconsistent deficits within the group that’s entrenched structural hierarchies with American history is that it would underperforming is so strong that we affect those central questions. be done in an anti-racist way so as to don’t even interrogate the evidence ensure that everybody, particularly to refute those claims,” he says. “We don’t understand group Black, Latinx, and Native people, “And that paper is powerful in that it dynamics and power related to those would have access to the resource.” prevents and refutes all the notions group dynamics, and that’s the void of inequality that reduce to some
18 theMINORITYREPORT cultural, behavioral, or self-investment an adult.” He initially thought it’d be to be more vocal to effect change. deficit among those that aren’t a good springboard for law school or … Thinking about providing avenues performing well.” business school, but then realized he for our work to be publicly engaged had already found his passion. “The is something that the academy and Hamilton’s view of who gets what in more I engaged with economics, as universities could do better at and the U.S. economy was shaped early well as college in general, I realized should do better at.” in his life, as he grew up in a family that, one, I could make a good living of modest income in New York City’s and have the agency that I desire And that’s why “scholar-preacher” is a Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood being a university professor, and title he never shied away from. in the 1980s. With a combination of that, two, my identity is really one “A knee-jerk reaction might be for a family contribution and scholarship of a scholar. And then, three, that money, he attended a private, Quaker- scholar to say, ‘No, no, no, that’s not economics was a way of thinking that me,’” Hamilton says. “I didn’t distance run school, where he saw another side was very consistent with how I think to the story. “My experience growing myself from it. Instead I embraced the about things more generally, trying to term and said, ‘Well, to the extent up exposed me to two worlds,” address problems given constraints.” Hamilton said in a profile for Mother that preachers are able to convey Jones. “A lot of friends that I grew up All along, he’s been outspoken about messages to a wider audience so with, versus some of the friends that I his beliefs and the solutions that form as to improve ethics and lives more went to school with—I could see that the heart of his research. And he generally, that is something I wouldn’t fundamentally they are similar people, thinks economists and other scholars want to distance myself from, but but one was exposed to a greater have a responsibility to go beyond embrace.’ But one need not forget set of resources than others, and it publishing in academic journals, to the other part of that equation, which influenced their life outcomes.” reach the public, politicians, and is the scholarship. I am still not only stakeholders. guided by a moral compass, but When he started his higher education also grounded by the integrity and at Oberlin College, he chose “If not us, then who?” he asks. “I the rigors associated with being a economics as his focus “because I think that the whole system of tenure scholar.” n decidedly did not want to have to provides us the cover to not have struggle and worry about resources as that threat of unemployment so as
PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE A salon and parlor game of the 19th century, made most famous by Marcel Proust’s answers, the Proust Questionnaire (adapted here) gets to the heart of things... } What’s on your nightstand? } What trait do you most admire in people? A bottle of water, remote controls, and 12 books. I Humanitarianism. will list the six that are on top: (1) We Own the Future: } Which living person do you most admire? Democratic Socialism—American Style, (2) Race for This is something that changes because I know a lot Profit, (3) Race After Technology, (4) The Worldly of admirable and dope people, but right about now, Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of Great Sen. Bernie Sanders, and it’s because of more than Economic Thinkers, (5) Hillbilly Elegy, and (6) The the fact that we share the same birthday (smile). Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad. } What is your favorite extravagance? } What is an ideal day? Unnecessary electronic gadgets. At this point, a day in which I finish writing a document that was probably long past due (smile). } What is your worst habit? Sugar. } What trait do you deplore in other people? I’ve got two—condescension and selfishness, but if I } Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman? have to pick, selfishness. Out of those two, Keynes—shocker (smile). } What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? I am still doing it, living without my mother.
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 19 ECONOMIC JOBS BEYOND ACADEMIA
While many people are familiar with the responsibilities of academic jobs, less is known about jobs for economists outside of academia. The following are examples of nonacademic positions held by economists, described in their own words.
WORLD BANK WASHINGTON, DC
Carlos Arteta is a lead economist in the World Bank’s views on critical global Prospects Group, which he joined in 2015. Headquartered macroeconomic issues in Washington, DC, the World Bank is an international and help shape the financial institution that provides loans and grants to associated policy debate,” the governments of poorer countries for the purpose and he adds that one key of pursuing capital projects. Within the World Bank, challenge is to “be able the Prospects Group conducts in-depth analysis of key to identify and rigorously global macroeconomic developments and their impact analyze emerging global macro topics and trends under on World Bank member countries, leads the World Bank’s tight timeframes on a regular basis.” forecasting work, and produces its semiannual Global Economic Prospects flagship report. It also produces the Commodity Markets Outlook report, policy-relevant research on topical issues, and timely updates on global economic developments. Prior to his current position, Carlos Arteta’s advice to newly minted Arteta served as principal economist at the Division economists who might be interested of International Finance of the Federal Reserve Board in this type of job is to talk to people and as deputy chief international economist at the U.S. currently working in the institution to Department of the Treasury. get a better idea of their day-to-day experience. Describing his work at the World Bank, Arteta explains: “As lead economist in the Prospects Group, I coordinate “It is important for potential candidates to determine the work program on global and regional macroeconomic whether a particular position will be a good fit to surveillance. Among various related tasks, I am one of their interests and profile,” he explains. He stresses the main authors of the Global Economic Prospects that the World Bank continuously searches for report.” Arteta notes that an important part of his job qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds from is to “contribute to the development of the Bank’s around the globe, and that female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
20 theMINORITYREPORT ECONOMIC JOBS BEYOND ACADEMIA MICROSOFT RESEARCH NEW ENGLAND CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Eleanor Dillon is a senior economist at Microsoft Research to advance were clear: write New England. Microsoft Research is a multidisciplinary papers that get published in research lab within Microsoft, with particular emphasis top journals. My days now have on computer science, economics, and the interactions of more meetings and short-term technology and culture. Dillon describes the atmosphere deadlines, but the long-term at the lab as similar to an academic department, with goals are more open-ended and regular seminar series, post-docs, faculty visitors, and entrepreneurial. The way for opportunities to share work within the lab. economists in tech companies to succeed is to identify a gap or Her primary responsibility is to “facilitate applications inefficiency in business practices and fix it. That freedom of the innovations that emerge from this lab to business to define my own role is exciting, but also intimidating.” problems within and beyond Microsoft,” she explains. “I am part of a team that develops new machine learning techniques for answering causal inference questions and have partnered with teams around Microsoft and in other companies on particular problems that require Eleanor Dillon’s advice to newly minted causal analysis. I am also continuing my research work.” economists who might be interested in jobs beyond academia is to be brave and When asked about the most interesting aspect of her open minded, and to apply broadly. job, Dillon highlights the balance of applied work and research: “While there are few things more satisfying “Don’t be too quick to assume that you won’t be than a creative breakthrough on a research project, interested in a job or don’t have the necessary skills,” those moments are rare, and between them working on she warns. “I knew what traits I wanted in my work, research can be slow, narrow, and solitary. My business but I only learned what opportunities were open work is faster paced (most projects last a few months), to me and which had those traits by interviewing covers a wider range of economic questions, and involves and talking with friends in government, think tanks, working more in teams. With each project I know I’ve had banking, consulting, and tech.” She adds that many a measurable, immediate effect on a real-world problem. technology firms are hiring economists now, and that For me, each part of my job refreshes my mind for the a background in industrial organization or business other.” She adds that she feels deeply intellectually is useful, but that economists’ most distinctive skill at stimulated by interactions with her colleagues— tech firms is causal inference. She advises job seekers particularly with people in other fields. “Economics to “brush up on practical applied microeconometrics tends to be a bit siloed,” she notes, “and one of the and be prepared to use those tools to answer many best parts of this job has been learning more about how kinds of questions.” computer scientists think about causal inference and Dillon points out that Microsoft is sharply focused how sociologists and anthropologists think about how on attracting, recruiting, and retaining diverse talent. technology is changing the labor market.” “We require the use of diverse slates in the hiring The main challenge is that success in her job is less clearly process for most roles and are expanding their use defined. She explains: “In academia I had little structure to help increase the number of women and minority on how I spent each day, but the long-term requirements candidates for open positions,” she explains.
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Issue 13 | Winter 2021 21 } continued from page 21
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong is a program director in future Nobel laureates before their the Economics Program in the Directorate for Social, work becomes well-known.” Behavioral and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF is an independent federal agency The work does not come without that supports research and education in all nonmedical challenges, however. “The major fields of science and engineering, funding around 25% of challenges in the job are the sheer all federally supported basic research conducted by U.S. volume of work, the breadth of colleges and universities. topics to be covered, and the time constraints,” explains Gyimah- Gyimah-Brempong joined NSF in 2016, having Brempong. “There are three program directors for the previously worked there as a program director in a Economics Program. On average, we handle about short-term rotation more than a decade earlier. His 340–350 proposals a year, which must be processed—with work at NSF involves “communicating with research decisions made—within six months of receipt. Because we communities in economics and other social sciences, cover all fields of economics, sometimes we have to cover reviewing and evaluating research proposals, and making subjects that are not directly in our research area.” recommendations for NSF funding.” He is one of three economists managing the Economics Program at NSF. “I also work with colleagues to develop new research initiatives for the foundation,” he adds, “and prepare briefs on important achievements, such as Nobel Prize– winning research, and other research with important Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong advises societal benefits that the program has funded.” He newly minted economists who might be further notes that an essential part of his job involves interested in this type of job to focus on conducting outreach in the research community, their research and get involved in NSF which he does through several mechanisms including activities. workshops, presentations at professional conferences, Having a strong research record is important for visits to institutions, and personal contacts. this work. In addition, he recommends “contacting When asked about the most interesting aspects of his job, an NSF program director and expressing interest, Gyimah-Brempong highlights “being surrounded by some becoming a proposal reviewer, volunteering to of the best minds in academia, who value teamwork and serve on an NSF panel, and attending or organizing are willing to help with and exchange ideas on academic sessions at NSF workshops.” issues. One gains a broader perspective of science at NSF uses professional outlets such as the American NSF than can ever be gained in an academic department. Economic Association’s Job Openings for Economists The opportunities to work across disciplines to tackle (JOE), economics journals, and letters to department particular problems—for example, minimizing hurricane chairs, as well as personal contacts to reach disaster—are extremely exciting.” He further notes that underrepresented groups. NSF job openings are “one gets to see the frontiers of their field of study and posted on USAJobs. Gyimah-Brempong stresses indirectly shape the future of their own discipline through that “NSF goes the extra mile to recruit from the awards we make,” as well as “meet many young and underrepresented groups.” exciting scholars at the frontiers of research—including
22 theMINORITYREPORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
CSMGEP AEA MENTORING PROGRAM » Diversifying Economics Seminars - Speakers List » New Director/Co-Director
CSMGEP invites conference and seminar organizers CSMGEP is pleased to announce that Trevon to consult the Diversifying Economics Seminars - Logan was unanimously selected as the AEA Speakers List to find economists who identify as Mentoring Program’s new director, effective May underrepresented minorities, gender minorities, 26, 2020. Logan, who is professor of economics and or LGBTQ+. The speakers list was conceived as a associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences response to the refrain that no individuals from at The Ohio State University and research associate underrepresented groups had been invited to at the National Bureau of Economic Research, served speak because the organizer did not know of any two terms on CSMGEP and is a past president of the such individuals in the subfield. CSMGEP invites National Economic Association. He will work closely underrepresented economists to add their names with Dr. Francisca Antman, associate professor of and areas of expertise to the speaker database economics at the University of Colorado–Boulder, at https://econspeakerdiversity.shinyapps.io/ who was selected as the new associate director of the EconSpeakerDiversity/. AEA Mentoring Program, effective August 18, 2020. Dr. Antman also served two terms on CSMGEP and is » New Diversity Awards the current chair of the ASHE Scholarship and Awards Committee. She will become co-director, effective CSMGEP announces five new AEA awards to January 1, 2021. promote diversity. The AEA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion recognizes » Summer Mentoring Pipeline departments for excellence in conceiving and implementing new programs to promote diversity Conference and inclusion in their organization. Department Seed The AEA Summer Mentoring Pipeline Conference Grants for Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion (SMPC) is scheduled to take place in Washington, DC, offer one-time grant funding to help a department on June 18–19, 2021. Funded through a generous establish a new bridge or mentoring program grant from the National Science Foundation, the aimed at increasing diversity in economics doctoral SMPC annually brings together the mentees in programs. The Andrew Brimmer Undergraduate the AEA Mentoring Program, their mentors, other Essay Prize recognizes an essay on the economic professional economists (inside and outside well-being of Black Americans authored by an academia), and the students in the AEA Summer undergraduate student. Underrepresented Minority Training Program (AEASP). It is one of the largest Travel Grants help early-career underrepresented gatherings of traditionally underrepresented minority minority economists defray the cost of travel, lodging, economists in the country, including participants and registration for the annual ASSA meetings. Small ranging from undergraduate and graduate students Group Breakfast Meeting for Underrepresented to new PhDs and senior-level economists. Inspiring Minorities invites early-career underrepresented and uplifting, the SMPC features academic paper economists to a meeting with a prominent member(s) presentations, distinguished lectures, professional of the field such as AEA journal editors, executive development sessions, panel discussions, and board members, or thought leaders in specific areas networking opportunities. For more information, of economics for the purpose of addressing issues of email [email protected]. minority access to career-enhancing networks. See the CSMGEP website for fall 2021 application dates. continued on next page }
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 23 ANNOUNCEMENTS CONTINUED
» 2020 Impactful Mentor Award candidates with mentors to offer specific feedback on candidates’ job market papers, elevator pitches, Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe, founder and president CVs, and research/teaching statements, as well as to of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and facilitate networking opportunities. Sessions included Race (WISER) and associate director of the AEASP at presentations by mentors on the job market paper, Howard University, has received the 2020 Impactful packet preparation, and interviewing strategies as well Mentor Award, to be presented at the 2021 ASSA as time for breakout conversations between mentors meetings. This award recognizes and celebrates the and job candidates. To learn more, contact the AEA excellence and impact of mentors on diversity, access, Mentoring Program at [email protected]. and inclusion in the economics profession. Sharpe has an exceptional history in this regard, having co-founded the Diversity Initiative for Tenure in ASHE Economics, a mentoring program to help guide junior faculty from underrepresented groups through the » Individual Service Award tenure process, and serving as its associate director This award was presented to Alberto Dávila, in honor from 2008 to 2014. She also served as associate of his role as ASHE co-founder, president, secretary, director of the AEASP at Duke University and is a past and, most recently, treasurer. His reliable and president of the National Economic Association. generous service since ASHE’s beginnings has been In his nomination letter, Dr. Omari Swinton, director of essential for the association. Dávila is currently dean the AEASP and chair of the Department of Economics of the Harrison College of Business and Computing at Howard University, wrote, “Dr. Sharpe is one of at Southeast Missouri State University. Prior to the few people in the profession who knows where this appointment, he was professor of economics most of her mentees are and what they are doing. and V.F. “Doc” and Gertrude Neuhaus Chair for This is a demonstration of the care and pride that she Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas–Pan takes in helping others achieve their goals.” Sharpe American, a position he held for 18 years, and most earned her doctorate in economics/mathematics recently was the senior associate dean of business at from Claremont Graduate University and held a the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. tenured professorship at Bennett College and visiting Dávila earned his PhD and MS in economics from positions at Duke University and Bucknell University Iowa State University and his BA in economics from prior to founding WISER. WISER is a think tank Pan American University. Dávila’s research interests working to ensure that policy research addresses the include the economics of the U.S.-Mexico border, economic, social, cultural, and political well-being the economics of immigration, and Hispanic labor of Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and markets. He has published on border-related topics multiracial women. since 1982, first appearing in the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’s Economic Review. With Marie T. Mora, » 2020 Job Market Bootcamp Dávila co-edited the books Labor Market Issues along the U.S.-Mexico Border and Hispanic Entrepreneurs Nine job market candidates and four mentors from in the 2000s. With Mora and Havidán Rodríguez, he academic, government, and nonprofit institutions published Population, Migration, and Socioeconomic participated in the 2020 Job Market Bootcamp, held Outcomes among Island and Mainland Puerto Ricans. virtually. Created in 2018, the Job Market Bootcamp helps prepare candidates for the economics PhD job market and increase their chances of securing » Institutional Service Award positions best suited to their interests, training, and We honor The Samuel Dubois Cook Center on professional and personal goals. Held over five Social Equity at Duke University for its exhaustive monthly sessions between August and December, efforts to diversify the profession of economics in the virtual bootcamp was designed to match
24 theMINORITYREPORT ANNOUNCEMENTS CONTINUED
academia through its Diversity Initiative for Tenure in ASHE President-elect Jose Fernandez published Economics (DITE) program. Funded by the National features of the following Latino and Black Science Foundation, DITE has mentored 10 cohorts economists on Twitter: Mark Lopez, Adela de la Torre, of economists through workshops and peer-to-peer Monica Deza, Alberto Dávila, Luisa Blanco, Alfonso mentorship, seeking to facilitate tenure of economists Flores-Lagunes, Gabriel Picone, Catalina Amuedo- from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in Dorantes, Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Marie Mora, academia via research and teaching. The program Fernando Lozano, Carycruz Bueno, Sebastián Tello- has mentored several well-known economists and Trillo, Angélica Meinhofer, Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Kalena full professors, who found professional support and Cortes, Ronald Oaxaca, Michelle Holder, Steve Trejo, a valuable network. We celebrate the success of Susan Pozo, José Caraballo-Cueto, Mónica García- the many colleagues who are proud DITE alumni, Pérez, Salvador Navarro, Francisca Antman, Gilbert including ASHE’s president, president-elect, and a Gonzalez, Isabel Ruiz, Joe Benitez, Vicky Pérez, Juan past president. Moreno-Cruz, Camila Morales, Emma Aguila, and Sandra Trejos. Read the Twitter thread here: https:// » ASHE Dissertation Awards twitter.com/UofLEcon/status/1305936207331823616. Since their creation in 2011—initially as a summer » ASHE Coffee with Reporters dissertation fellowship—these awards have supported young scholars who share ASHE’s goals. In 2020, ASHE launched Coffee with Reporters, We are happy to announce that the 2020 ASHE a series of events designed to create an open Dissertation Award goes to Jetson Leder-Luis. Leder- conversation about the issues covered in the news Luis is an assistant professor in the Department of and a bridge between our members’ expertise and Markets, Public Policy and Law at Boston University’s topics of interest to economics reporters from Questrom School of Business, as of July 2020. He various media outlets. More than 20 ASHE members received his PhD in economics from MIT in May participated in 2020 events, which included reporters 2020, where his dissertation examined the economics from the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the of fraud and corruption. He was a 2019–20 Ford New York Times. The events also aim to connect our Foundation dissertation fellow and an NBER scholarship with a more general audience. predoctoral fellow in Health and Aging. In 2017, he was recognized by MIT with the Levitan Teaching NEA Award for excellence in undergraduate instruction. Originally from Yonkers, New York, Leder-Luis is an » 100 Years of African American alumnus of the REACH Prep bridge program and did his undergraduate work at Caltech. Economics
Read more about the awards at The National Economic Association will https://asheweb.org/2020-dissertation-awards/. commemorate the 100th anniversary of when Sadie T.M. Alexander received a doctoral degree in » Latino Economists Highlights economics. Beginning with the 2021 ASSA sessions, our conference theme is 100 Years of African This year we celebrated five Latino economists American Economics. Three sessions will focus on during Hispanic Heritage Month: Mark Lopez, Luisa the history of African Americans in the economics Blanco, Susan Pozo, Ronald Oaxaca, and Mary profession from the 1920s to 1970s. The NEA hopes Lopez. Highlights included a conversation with the you will attend our virtual discussion of this history five esteemed scholars on why they chose to be and other topics of importance to Black communities economists and what advice they have for future by registering for the ASSA meetings. The NEA also economists. Read more here: https://asheweb.org/ plans to commemorate the 100-year milestone with past-latino-economists-highlights/. events throughout 2021.
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 25 ACTIVITIES
Age and the Labor Market for Hispanics in the United CSMGEP States } Allied Social Sciences Association Joanna Lahey, Texas A&M University Roberto Mosquera Moyano, University of the Americas CSMGEP DISSERTATION SESSION Healthy Aging among Older Mexican Immigrants Chair: Renee Bowen, University of California–San Diego Emma Aguila, University of Southern California Maria Casanova, California State University–Fullerton Desegregation and Impact Aid: Does Military Presence Influence School Composition? Incarceration and Black-White Cohort Differences in Male Employment, Earnings, and Social Security Howard University Chantal D. Smith, Wealth
Petroleum Extraction, Agriculture, and the Local Gary Engelhardt, Syracuse University Communities in the Niger Delta: A Case of Ilaje Community The Effect of Social Security Retirement Benefits on Food-Related Hardship among Older Americans Adedayo Ladelokun, Howard University Perry Singleton, Syracuse University Nowcasting Waterborne Commerce: A Bayesian Joyce Chang, Syracuse University Model Averaging Approach The Effect of Opioids on Health and Physical Mobility Brett Garcia, University of Oregon Jeremy Piger, University of Oregon Engy Ziedan, Tulane University Wesley W. Wilson, University of Oregon Discussants: Patrick Button, Tulane University Financial Inclusion: A Policy Impact Assessment Kosali Simon, Indiana University Noimot Bakare-Ayoub, Howard University Damon Jones, University of Chicago Joanna Lahey, Texas A&M University Work Half-Time, Receive Full-Time Pay: Effect of Novel Family Policy on Female Labor Market Outcomes } Southern Economic Association Luciana Etcheverry, University of Oregon Joint Sessions with CSWEP and the Discussants: Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Economics Profession Mar Reguant, Northwestern University Rebecca Dizon-Ross, University of Chicago Meet the Editors University of Chicago Mikhail Golosov, Chair: Jose Fernandez, University of Louisville University of Chicago Marianne Bertrand, Panelists: Graham Elliott, University of California–San Diego Stefano Barbieri, Tulane University Donna Gilleskie, University of North Carolina at AGING AND RACE Chapel Hill Chair: Syracuse University Christopher S. (Kitt) Carpenter, Vanderbilt Perry Singleton, University Madeline Zavodny, University of North Florida
26 theMINORITYREPORT ACTIVITIES
Advice for the Non-Rookie Job Market Increasing Racial Equity in Access to Health Care, Lessons from COVID-19 Chair: Jose Fernandez, University of Louisville Jeannette Wicks-Lim, University of Massachusetts– Panelists: Amherst Nzinga H. Broussard, Global Innovation Fund Douglas N. Harris, Tulane University The Great Un-Equalizer: Does COVID-19 Exacerbate Joseph J. Sabia, San Diego State University Economic and Health Disadvantage? The Case of Chloe R. Gibbs, University of Notre Dame American Indian Populations University of California–Los Angeles Meet the Funders Randall Akee, Luis Quintero, Johns Hopkins University Moderator: Jennifer L. Doleac, Texas A&M University Emilia Simeonova, Johns Hopkins University Panelists: COVID-19, Discrimination, and Asian Americans’ Arnold Ventures Stuart Buck, Business Formation and Survival Susana Marquez, The Rockefeller Foundation Mark Steinmeyer, Smith Richardson Foundation Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, University of California– Merced Stephen Glauser, Russell Sage Foundation Chunbei Wang, University of Oklahoma Discussants: Alberto Ortega, Indiana University ASHE Mónica I. García-Pérez, St. Cloud State University Jose Fernandez, University of Louisville } Allied Social Sciences Association IMMIGRATION POLICY ISSUES, LABOR AEA-NEA-ASHE JOINT SESSION ON EFFECTS, AND MEXICAN AMERICAN EXPLORING RACE AND ETHNICITY EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Joint Session with NEA Chair: University of Louisville Chair: Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Duke University Jose Fernandez,
Staying Close When Apart: The Value of “Information- Immigration Policy and Its Impact on Low-Skilled Communication” during the COVID-19 Pandemic Workers University of California– Francis Annan, Georgia State University Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Merced Belinda Archibong, Columbia University–Barnard College Esther Arenas-Arroyo, Vienna University of Economics and Business Bernhard Schmidpeter, RWI–Leibniz Institute for An Examination of Racial, Economic and Health Equity Economic Research During the Coronavirus Pandemic Jevay Grooms, Howard University Historical Roots of Educational Disadvantage and Alberto Ortega, Indiana University Progress for Mexican Americans Joaquín Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba, University of University of Colorado–Denver North Carolina at Chapel Hill Brian Duncan, Stephen J. Trejo, University of Texas–Austin COVID-19 and Caregiving by Black and Hispanic Grandparents continued on next page } Enrique A. Lopezlira, Grand Canyon University
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 27 ACTIVITIES CONTINUED
Illegal Immigration: The Trump Effect } Southern Economic Association Mark Hoekstra, Texas A&M University Sandra Orozco-Aleman, Mississippi State University CRIME, CORRUPTION, AND HEALTH AMONG HISPANICS The Effect of Immigration Enforcement on Labor Supply: An Examination of United States Hispanic Chair: Jose Fernandez, University of Louisville Adolescent Youth in Mixed-Status Families Moving Citizens and Deterring Criminals: Innovation in Joaquín Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba, University of Public Transport Facilities North Carolina at Chapel Hill Syracuse University José R. Bucheli, New Mexico State University Joaquín A. Urrego, Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, Universidad EAFIT Discussants: Juan C. Duque, Universidad EAFIT Dania V. Francis, University of Massachusetts–Boston Karl Boulware, Wesleyan University The Impact of Impunity on Growth and Development: Luisa Blanco Raynal, Pepperdine University Mexico and the World David J. Molina, University of North Texas Lucinda Vargas, New Mexico University HEALTH DISPARITIES AMONG HISPANICS IN TIMES OF COVID-19 Fleeing Hometowns for Safety: The Short-Run Effect of Crime on Migration in Mexico Chair: Southeast Missouri State Alberto Dávila, Syracuse University University Carmen Carrión-Flores, Isai Guizar, Universidad de Guadalajara COVID-19, Race/Ethnicity and Age: How Information Technologies Can Close the Gaps on Health Disparities NEA Juan J. DelaCruz, City University of New York– Lehman College } Allied Social Sciences Association Andreas Kakolyris, City University of New York– Manhattan College The History of African Americans in the Economics Christos Giannikos, City University of New York– Baruch College Profession: Beginnings Chair: Willene A. Johnson, Komaza, Inc. A Change in the Incidence of Income Tax and Physicians’ Location Choice: The Case of Puerto Rico Panelists: Bucknell University Jose Fernandez, University of Louisville Nina Banks, Topic: Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander The Impact of Health Shocks and Vulnerabilities on Samuel L. Myers Jr., University of Minnesota Latinos’ Wealth Topic: The African American Experience at Harvard University Graduate Economics Department during Mónica I. García-Pérez, St. Cloud State University the World War II Era Discussants: University of Pennsylvania Stephen J. Trejo, University of Texas–Austin Bernard Anderson, Topic: Marcus Alexis and Andrew Brimmer Esther Arenas-Arroyo, Vienna University of Economics and Business David Swinton, Benedict College Mark Hoekstra, Texas A&M University Topic: Robert Browne José R. Bucheli, New Mexico State University
28 theMINORITYREPORT ACTIVITIES CONTINUED
Linwood Tauheed, University of Missouri–Kansas City Inequality and Socioeconomic Outcomes Topic: Lloyd Hogan Omer Ali, Duke University William Darity Jr., Duke University William Darity Jr., Duke University Topic: African Americans in Desegregating Avra Janz, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the Economics Department at MIT Marta Sánchez, University of North Carolina Wilmington ECONOMICS AND RACISM: THE LONG VIEW Assessing Value, Cultivating Inequality: How Home Racialized Appraisal Practices Have Exacerbated Joint Session with Wealth Inequality from 1980 to 2015 History of Economics Society Junia Howell, University of Pittsburgh Chair: Evelyn Forget, University of Manitoba Discussants: Economists, Race and Racism: The Long View Alexandra Killewald, Harvard University Bradley Hardy, American University Sandra J. Peart, University of Richmond David M. Levy, George Mason University DISEASE, UNCERTAINTY AND AFRICAN Fighting Racism with/in Economics? The Journey ECONOMIES of Phyllis A. Wallace, 1944–1975 Joint Session with African Finance and Economics Association Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche, University of Cambridge Chair: Leonce Ndikumana, University of Massachusetts–Amherst Francis Galton’s Pictorial Statistics: The Eugenic Origins of Ethnic Profiling Weather Shocks, Economic Consequences, and Climate-Proofing Infrastructure in Africa Marcel Boumans, Utrecht University Hanan Morsy, African Development Bank Discussant: Eman Moustafa, African Development Bank Guy Numa, Colorado State University Lacina Balma, African Development Bank
CORRELATES OF WEALTH INEQUALITY How Income Uncertainty Affects Child Labour: WITHIN AND ACROSS COUNTRIES Evidence from the Cocoa Households’ Financial Chair: William Darity Jr., Duke University Diaries Samuel Amponsah, Tokyo International University Wealth Inequality in Young Adulthood: Defining the Nathan Munier, Tokyo International University Black Middle Class Savannroeun Samreth, Saitama University Fenaba Addo, University of Wisconsin–Madison Germs, Globalization, and Trade Spillovers: How Intergenerational Economic Mobility and the Racial Could COVID-19 Affect African Economies and Wealth Gap AfCFTA? Jermaine Toney, Rutgers University Gouranga Das, Hanyang University Cassandra Robertson, Cornell University Jean-Claude Maswana, Ritsumeikan University Yumeka Hirano, World Bank
continued on next page }
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 29 ACTIVITIES CONTINUED
Do Better Institutions Broaden Access to Sanitation Wage Inequality Pre and Post the Great Recession in Sub-Saharan Africa? Enrique A. Lopezlira, Grand Canyon University John Nana Francois, West Texas A&M University Johnson Kakeu, University of Prince Edward Island ADDRESSING LABOR MARKET BARRIERS Cristelle Kouame, World Bank FOR THE INCARCERATED AND FORMERLY INCARCERATED: EMPLOYEE Is Regional Trade Integration a Growth and OWNERSHIP AND OTHER STRATEGIES Convergence Engine in Africa? FOR SUCCESS
Vigninou Gammadidge, Central Bank of West African Chair: Ngina Chiteji, New York University States (BCEAO) Panelists: Discussants: Olugbenga Ajilore, Center for American Progress Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong, National Science Peter Blair, Harvard University Foundation Robynn Cox, University of Southern California Columbia University–Barnard Belinda Archibong, John Jay College of College Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Criminal Justice Vanguard University of Southern Julius A. Agbor, Belmont University California Colin Cannonier, Mina Balliamoune-Lutz, University of North Florida John Nana Francois, West Texas A&M University HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE ECONOMICS PROFESSION: POST- CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE POLITICAL RACE, GENDER AND CLASS INEQUALITY ECONOMY OF BLACK POWER Joint Session with Association for Social Economics Chair: Romie Tribble Jr., Spelman College Chair: Rhonda V. Sharpe, Women’s Institute for Panelists: Science, Equity and Race Juliet Elu, Morehouse College Patrick Mason, Florida State University Busting the Myth of Black Women’s Weak Labor William E. Spriggs, Howard University and AFL-CIO Force Attachment Gregory N. Price, University of New Orleans Women’s Institute for Science, University of Massachusetts– Rhonda V. Sharpe, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Equity and Race Amherst RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND The “Double Gap” and the Bottom Line: African DISPARITIES: EFFECTS OF American Women’s Wage Gap and Corporate Profits INSTITUTIONAL AND HISTORICAL Michelle Holder, City University of New York FACTORS Chair: Howard University Bank Failures, Credit Allocation and Income Inequality Andria Smythe,
Salvador Contreras, University of Texas Rio Grande Ghosts of Mississippi: Long-term Impacts of Racial Valley Lynchings Amit Ghosh, Illinois Wesleyan University University of Missouri–Kansas Iftekhar Hasan, Fordham University Matthew Robinson, City Gender Economics, Race, and Intersectionality Reginald Noël, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Whitney J. Hewlett, Georgetown University
30 theMINORITYREPORT ACTIVITIES CONTINUED
Competition and Discrimination in Public Quality of Life, Growth and Development in Accommodations: Evidence from the Green Books Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Re-examination of the Evidence Maggie E.C. Jones, University of Victoria Lisa D. Cook, Michigan State University Akpan H. Ekpo, University of Uyo Trevon D. Logan, Ohio State University David Rosé, Wilfrid Laurier University The Demand for Gasoline and Pollution Control Using Fiscal Instruments in Nigeria The Evolution of Civil Rights Enforcement and Douglason G. Omotor, West African Institute for Economic Prosperity of Minorities Financial and Economic Management and Delta State University José Joaquín López, University of Memphis West African Institute for Financial Jamein P. Cunningham, University of Memphis Baba Y. Musa, and Economic Management Delta State University A Comparative Analysis: Examining University and Christopher O. Orubu, Delta State University College’s Faculty Characteristics That Influence Jacob S. Oboreh, Educational Outcomes at HBCUs The Quandary of Growth in Africa: The Stabilizing Nicholas Hill, Claflin University Role of Economic Integration Omari Swinton, Howard University Oladele Omosegbon, Indiana Wesleyan University The Impact of Access to Collective Bargaining Rights Remittances and Domestic Output in the Long Run on Policing and Civilian Deaths John Nana Francois, West Texas A&M University Rob Gillezeau, University of Victoria Nazneen Ahmad, Weber State University Jamein P. Cunningham, University of Memphis Andrew Keinsley, Weber State University Donna Feir, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and University of Victoria Akwasi Nti-Addae, Drew University
Discussants: The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Algernon Austin, NAACP Legal Defense and and the Way Forward for Nigeria Educational Fund Andria Smythe, Howard University Miesha J. Williams, Morehouse College Jhacova Williams, Economic Policy Institute Discussants: Linda Loubert, Morgan State University FACTORS IMPACTING NATIONAL Ruth Uwaifo, Agnes Scott College VITALITY IN EMERGING AFRICAN Jan Christopher, Delaware State University NATIONS Andria Smythe, Howard University Loyola University Maryland Chair: Juliet Elu, Morehouse College John Ned,
Political Distance: Regional Favoritism in the Economic Effects of Epidemics Belinda Archibong, Columbia University–Barnard College Francis Annan, Georgia State University Uche Ekhator-Mobayode, University of Pittsburgh– Bradford
Issue 13 | Winter 2021 31 STAY CONNECTED WITH CSMGEP!
3 Visit the CSMGEP website (https://www.aeaweb.org/ about-aea/committees/csmgep) for a listing of minority job candidates (get added to the list!), profiles of “economists to watch,” information about our programs, and resources for teaching and research.
3 Don’t miss any CSMGEP news. Get added to our email list: http://mail.aeapubs.org/mailman/listinfo/ aea_csmgepnews
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THE MINORITY REPORT Issue 13 | Winter 2021