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DIVERSITY-2019/09/23 1 THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION THE GENDER AND RACIAL DIVERSITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S ECONOMISTS Washington, D.C. Monday, September 23, 2019 Introduction: LOUISE SHEINER Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow and Policy Director, Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, The Brookings Institution Overview: JANET L. YELLEN Distinguished Fellow in Residence, Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy The Brookings Institution Presentation: DAVID WESSEL Senior Fellow and Director, Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy The Brookings Institution Panelists: MODERATOR: SUSAN M. COLLINS Edward M. Gramlich Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics, University of Michigan Nonresident Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution AMANDA BAYER Professor of Economics, Swarthmore College JUDITH CHEVALIER William S. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Economics, Yale School of Management Nonresident Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution KAYE HUSBANDS FEALING Professor and Chair, School of Public Policy, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Georgia Tech ELLEN MEADE Senior Advisor, Federal Reserve Board ZINA B. SUTCH Deputy Associate Director of Outreach, Diversity, and Inclusion Office of Personnel Management * * * * * ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 500 Montgomery Street, Suite 400 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 DIVERSITY-2019/09/23 2 P R O C E E D I N G S MS. SHEINER: We are going to get started. Good morning everyone. Welcome to Brookings. My name is Louise Sheiner. I'm the Policy Director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy here at Brookings. And I'm really excited about today's event. The lack of diversity in economics has gotten a lot of well-deserved attention recently, but most of the focus has been on academia. So, we thought it was important to bring economists in the policy world into the discussion, which is what we're doing today. And I'm glad you could all be here. We're going to open today's discussion with some remarks from Janet Yellen, Former Fed Chair, and now a Scholar here at Brookings, who's got to talk about why this is such an important issue. And then we are going to move on to a presentation that's going to summarize the findings of a report that we issued today about diversity among economists in the Federal Government. And then finally we'll have a panel discussion about ways we can make progress in ensuring that our profession offers opportunities for everyone, and reflects the very broadest set of perspectives and views. So with that, I'm going to give you Janet Yellen. And I hope you enjoy this morning. (Applause) MS. YELLEN: Thanks, Louise. It's a pleasure to welcome you to the Hutchins Center Conference on Diversity Among the Federal Government's Economists. We will discuss the progress of women and minorities in the field of economics with a particular focus on trends in the Federal Government. Within the economics profession women and minorities are significantly underrepresented, and data compiled by the American economic associations, committees on the status of women in the economics profession, and the status of minority groups in the profession, show that there has been little or no progress in recent decades. ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 500 Montgomery Street, Suite 400 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 DIVERSITY-2019/09/23 3 Women today make up only about 30 percent of PhD students, within academia their representation drops the higher up one goes in the career ladder. The share of PhDs awarded to African-Americans is low, and it has declined slightly in recent decades. As David will shortly describe, the data collected for today's session showed that the representation of women and minorities in the Federal Government, including the Federal Reserve, is higher than in academia and has increased slightly in recent years. Encouraging findings, but there's much that can and should be done to improve the representation and success of women and minorities within the Federal Government. Why does diversity matter? What makes it important for the economics profession to become work inclusive? The first reason is basic fairness. The American Economic Association surveyed its members last year to understand how economists view the professional climate in the field. The results were disturbing, to say the least. Only 20 percent of women, half as many as men, reported themselves satisfied with the climate in economics. Women feel less valued and less included socially. Many feel that their talents are not fully realized, and all too many women and minorities have suffered harassment and discrimination during their careers, including both overt acts of abuse as well as more subtle forms of marginalization. To avoid harassment or disrespectful treatment, a large share of women report altering their behavior in ways that may be counterproductive for their career. Along all dimensions of discrimination examined in the survey Asians, African-Americans, and Latinx economists report having substantially worse experiences than their White counterparts. Nearly half of African American economists report unfair discrimination based on their race, such a pattern of discrimination and mistreatment is unfair, it is unacceptable. Practices and patterns of behavior that are widespread in the profession are harming the progress of women and minorities, and they are diminishing their job satisfaction. Beyond fairness, the lack of diversity harms the field because it wastes talent. Individuals with the aptitude and interest to contribute to the field are discouraged ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 500 Montgomery Street, Suite 400 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 DIVERSITY-2019/09/23 4 from pursuing a career in economics. It also skews the field's viewpoint and diminishes its breadth. Within the Federal Government diversity is especially important because diverse perspectives inspiring the best ideas and decisions translate into better service to the public. Moreover, diversity within the federal workforce promotes the mission that the government is supposed to serve. Diversity is important in ensuring that the research that's done within economics appropriately reflects society's priorities. Women work in all areas of economics, but they tend to be attracted to fields that are more people oriented, like health, education, development and labor. They gravitate somewhat less to macro-econometrics and finance. Women focus on issues of great importance that are under-studied by men. I'm particularly thinking about gender issues, such as the treatment of women who are more than half the world's population, the family, arguably humankind's most important institution, children who at some point in our lives includes everyone, and health care which also concerns all of us. Many government and business decisions affect women and men, and people of different racial backgrounds differently. If economists are mainly of one gender or race they are likely to miss things that matter. Under-representation of women likely constrains the range of issues addressed, and limits our ability to understand familiar issues from new and innovative perspectives. A recent paper shows concretely the importance of gender in determining patterns of research. It finds that female medical researchers produce greater medical advances for women. Patents with women inventors are significantly more likely to focus on female diseases and conditions. The findings suggest that the demography of inventors matter for what is invented. Women and men often have significantly different approaches and views on issues that are important to public policy that makes it especially important to hear women's voices. Yet the AEA survey found that almost half of women in the profession report that ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 500 Montgomery Street, Suite 400 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 DIVERSITY-2019/09/23 5 they have not asked a question or presented an idea at conferences for fear of being treated unfairly. That compares with 18 percent of men. A recent survey found that male and female economists have significantly different opinions on questions pertaining to health insurance and the minimum wage. Relative to male economists, women are more supportive of government regulation, more concerned about inequality, and less likely to see labor market opportunities for men and women as equal. The overwhelming preponderance of men in the economics profession, likely causes the profession's work to be biased towards results they find more appealing. The prevailing range of views among economists is likely to be biased by the relative lack of women and minority economists. Research, including lab experiments, shows that diversity changes group dynamics and decision making, mixed gender groups display more intense mutual monitoring, and produce better outcomes in business-oriented scenarios. Diverse groups outperform in solving complex problems, and ethnic diversity appears to promote the liberation and disrupt conformity. A study of Academic Research found that papers written by ethnically- diverse research teams receive more citations and a higher impact than papers written by authors from the same ethnic group. My friend and former colleague, Christine Lagarde, often jokes that if Lehman Brothers had instead been Lehman Sisters there might not have been a financial crisis. (Laughter) I see