Economics Still Has A Diversity Problem | NPR

Faculty Director Ted Miguel discussed improving diversity in a recent panel at the AEA annual meeting.

“It’s early January again, which means thousands of the nation’s economists invade a city for their annual meeting. This year’s was in San Diego. Walking around the sprawling conference, you could see a sea of nerds and wonks all sporting red lanyards. Nobel Prize winners brushed shoulders with former chairs of the Federal Reserve in a sea of anxious grad students hoping to land jobs. Planet Money was there too.

The conference has become a ritual. Long lines for coffee. No WiFi. Econ jargon echoing through the halls. And, in recent years, a profession grappling with the fact that it’s disproportionately white and male. Last year, the Planet Money newsletter covered a panel session called “How Can Economics Solve Its Gender Problem?” It featured an all-star cast of female economists who reckoned with a field they described as rife with sexism, misogyny, and bullying.

The awkward irony of that panel was its participants were virtually all white. That led to complaints on Twitter, which laid the groundwork for this year’s follow-up panel: ‘How Can Economics Solve Its Race Problem?'”

Source: Economics Still Has A Diversity Problem : Planet Money : NPR