In her keynote address Thursday evening, Dr. Kaye Husbands Fealing relayed an astonishing fact to a room of economists: From 2011-2020, the annual number of economics PhDs awarded to black women never rose above the single digits.
“It’s amazing how small these numbers are relative to the job that needs to be done,” said Dr. Husbands Fealing, the Assistant Director of the Social, Behavioral and Economics Sciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). It’s something that keeps her up at night, she added, “the fact that these numbers are so flat for so long, and I don’t know if we can say they won’t be flat for another decade.”
Improving those numbers is a motivation for the Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics (DITE), which on Thursday kicked off its latest meeting in Durham, N.C. The program, now in its 15th cohort and financially supported by the NSF along with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, provides mentorship and workshops to aid the transition from junior faculty status to associate professor for economists from underrepresented groups (most notably, Black, Latinx, and Native American economists).
William A. Darity Jr., director for both the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and the DITE program, noted that “the absence of black and Latino scholars, in particular, in the economics profession is reflective of various dimensions of the climate in that profession.” Following DITE’s launch in 2008, dozens of alumni of the program have achieved tenure across the country, including Dr. Lisa Cook, member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Isaiah Andrews, recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal and professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
But Dr. Darity, speaking on Friday morning, noted that Dr. Husbands Fealing’s comments “put the punctuation point on the importance of junior faculty in economics from underrepresented groups reaching tenure.”
In her speech Dr. Husbands Fealing, whom Dr. Darity described as having “one the most remarkably diverse career trajectories in the field of economics,” shared insights from her storied career in economics, which has seen her win numerous awards, including the American Economics Association’s (AEA) Carolyn Shaw Bell Award, as well as be named an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Her presentation, titled “Advancement and Lifelong learning with Generational Impact,” led the audience through the seven distinct research themes that have been prominent in her career, considering the pivot points in hindsight, and why these transitions of focus occurred, while noting that despite these many pivots she “did not plan any of it.”
The Friday program featured a slate of presentations from six DITE fellows from the 16th cohort. Dr. Mayra Pineda-Torres, Assistant Professor of Economics at Georgia Tech, spoke first on her research into the health and economic consequences of access to reproductive healthcare. Her presentation, “The Economics of Abortion Access,” studied how the recent legalization of elective abortion in Mexico City might help change relationship dynamics within a couple, specifically by decreasing the likelihood that women would experience intimate partner violence (IPV).
In “A Research Agenda on Finance and Inequality,” Dr. Agustin Hurtado, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Maryland Smith School of Business, shared his work on minority-owned banks and his micro-analysis into what factors affect mortgage access, specifically focused on characteristics of the borrowers, bank ownership, and loan officers. He also discussed preliminary analysis about the connection between immigration rates and rents for both immigrants and nonimmigrants.
Dr. David McMillon, assistant professor of economics at Emory University, concluded the morning with a talk on “What Makes Systemic Discrimination, ‘Systemic’? Exposing the Amplifiers of Inequity.” Dr. McMillon presented his theoretical model for analyzing systemic discrimination—how interconnected complex systems can amplify discrimination and, in turn, what opportunities exist for policymakers to design different interventions and upset the patterns of wealth inequities.
Dr. Keisha Solomon, Assistant Professor of Economics at Howard University, began the afternoon session with her presentation titled “Impact of health-related policies and programs on health and other socioeconomic outcomes.” Dr. Solomon's working paper explored how the COVID-19 pandemic—which changed the verification process for determining Medicaid eligibility—affected enrollment in Medicaid, and the effects of subsequent rollbacks of these changes.
Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Pittsburgh and Former Postdoctoral Associate at the Cook Center Dr. Omer Ali shared his research centered on housing markets and how historical U.S. housing policy has precipitated racial disparities in the country. As Dr. Ali detailed, by 1950 white households accounted for 97.7% of insured mortgages in the U.S., and for the majority of families today, the largest share of their wealth comes from housing: Identifying the precise origins of these disparities can help researchers understand, in turn, the best ways to alleviate the modern-day racial wealth gap.
Dr. Gary Lyn, Assistant Professor of Economics at Iowa State University and Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, concluded the day with his presentation “Granular Anti-Comparative Advantage,” which included a theoretical model for how large firms can play a crucial role in international trade and shape industry specialization and export patterns. Using this framework, Dr. Lyn explored the key characteristics of manufacturing firms in China that led them to experience comparative advantages or comparative disadvantages.
This week’s DITE conference concludes Saturday. Please stay tuned for further updates by following the Cook Center on social media and join the conversation using the hashtags #DiversityInEconomics and #DITEAugust2024.
