IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/col/000093/020190.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Diversifying the economics profession: the long road to overcoming discrimination and sub-representation of Hispanics and African Americans. An analysis of the United States between 1995-2019

Author

Listed:
  • Luis Eduardo Castellanos Rodríguez

Abstract

This paper analyses the dynamics related to the representation of African Americans and Hispanics in every level of economics within U.S. post-secondary institutions from 1995 to 2019. I show that there is underrepresentation of Hispanics and African Americans in economics and evaluate some of the possible reasons for the persistence of socioeconomic barriers, including discrimination and attitudes of self-isolation, which block minorities from advancing in academia and professional areas. I discuss some of the advances in economics that address the discrimination problem and some models that try to explain its existence. I present ways in which each member of the economics community could help to alleviate the underrepresentation of minorities in the field and relate some of the posible effects of this problem to non-U.S. institutions that teach economics. Finally, I discuss why addressing underrepresentation and discrimination in economics is important. ****** Este artículo analiza la dinámica relacionada con la representación de afroamericanos e hispanos en todos los niveles de formación en Economía dentro de las instituciones de educación superior de Estados Unidos entre 1995 y 2019. Se muestra que hay una subrepresentación de hispanos y afroamericanos en la profesión y se evalúan algunas de las posibles razones de la persistencia de barreras socioeconómicas, como la discriminación y las actitudes de autoaislamiento, que bloquean el avance académico y profesional de estas minorías. Se discuten algunos de los avances en Economía para abordar el problema y algunos modelos que intentan explicar su existencia. Se exponen algunas de las formas en que cada uno de nosotros podría ayudar a aliviar la subrepresentación de las minorías en el campo y se identifican algunos de los posibles efectos de esta problemática sobre los departamentos de Economía no estadounidenses. Finalmente, se discute por qué es importante abordar la subrepresentación y la discriminación en la Economía.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Eduardo Castellanos Rodríguez, 2021. "Diversifying the economics profession: the long road to overcoming discrimination and sub-representation of Hispanics and African Americans. An analysis of the United States between 1995-2019," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 40(84), pages 875-897, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:col:000093:020190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/ceconomia/article/view/95665
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goldsmith, Arthur H. & Sedo, Stanley & Darity, William Jr. & Hamilton, Darrick, 2004. "The labor supply consequences of perceptions of employer discrimination during search and on-the-job: Integrating neoclassical theory and cognitive dissonance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 15-39, February.
    2. Arthur H. Goldsmith & Darrick Hamilton & William Darity, Jr, 2007. "From Dark to Light: Skin Color and Wages Among African-Americans," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(4).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Howard Bodenhorn & Christopher Ruebeck, 2007. "Colourism and African–american wealth: evidence from the nineteenth-century south," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(3), pages 599-620, July.
    2. William Darity & Darrick Hamilton & James Stewart, 2015. "A Tour de Force in Understanding Intergroup Inequality: An Introduction to Stratification Economics," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 1-6, June.
    3. Timothy M. Diette & Arthur H. Goldsmith & Darrick Hamilton & William Darity, 2018. "Race, Unemployment, and Mental Health in the USA: What Can We Infer About the Psychological Cost of the Great Recession Across Racial Groups?," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 75-91, September.
    4. Howard Bodenhorn & Carolyn Moehling & Gregory N. Price, 2012. "Short Criminals: Stature and Crime in Early America," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(2), pages 393-419.
    5. Elif S. Filiz, 2022. "Does it Payoff to be Blond in a Non-Blond Neighborhood? Eye Color, Hair Color, Ethnic Composition and Starting Wages," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 122-146, January.
    6. Gosnell, Greer K., 2018. "Communicating Resourcefully: A Natural Field Experiment on Environmental Framing and Cognitive Dissonance in Going Paperless," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 128-144.
    7. Robert Rudolf, 2014. "Work Shorter, Be Happier? Longitudinal Evidence from the Korean Five-Day Working Policy," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 1139-1163, October.
    8. Hersch, Joni, 2011. "Skin color, physical appearance, and perceived discriminatory treatment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 671-678.
    9. Amanuel E. Habtegiorgis & Yin Paradies, 2013. "Utilising self-report data to measure racial discrimination in the labour market," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(1), pages 5-41.
    10. Hunter, Boyd & Howlett, Monica & Biddle, Nicholas, 2014. "Modelling Exposure to Risk of Experiencing Discrimination in the Context of Endogenous Ethnic Identification," IZA Discussion Papers 8040, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Siddharth Shirodkar & Boyd Hunter, 2019. "Factors underlying the likelihood of being in business for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 22(1), pages 5-27.
    12. Randall Akee & Mutlu Yuksel, 2012. "The Decreasing Effect of Skin Tone on Women's Full-Time Employment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(2), pages 398-426, April.
    13. Maria Eduarda Tannuri Pianto & Andrew Francis, 2011. "The Redistributive Efficacy Ofaffirmative Action: Exploring The Role Of Race And Socioeconomic Statusin College Admissions," Anais do XXXVIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 38th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 218, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    14. Balestrino, Alessandro & Ciardi, Cinzia, 2008. "Social norms, cognitive dissonance and the timing of marriage," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2399-2410, December.
    15. Romain Espinosa & Jan Stoop, 2021. "Do people really want to be informed? Ex-ante evaluations of information-campaign effectiveness," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1131-1155, December.
    16. Tracy MacIntosh & Mayur M Desai & Tene T Lewis & Beth A Jones & Marcella Nunez-Smith, 2013. "Socially-Assigned Race, Healthcare Discrimination and Preventive Healthcare Services," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-7, May.
    17. Francis, Andrew M. & Tannuri-Pianto, Maria, 2012. "The redistributive equity of affirmative action: Exploring the role of race, socioeconomic status, and gender in college admissions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 45-55.
    18. Alberto Ortega & Ema Di Fruscia & Bryn Louise, 2021. "Trade Liberalization And Racial Animus," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 194-204, January.
    19. Monroy-Gómez-Franco, Luis, 2023. "Shades of social mobility: Colorism, ethnic origin and intergenerational social mobility," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 247-266.
    20. John Robst & Jennifer VanGilder & Corinne E. Coates & David J. Berri, 2011. "Skin Tone and Wages: Evidence From NBA Free Agents," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(2), pages 143-156, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discrimination; minority representation; post-secondary education; socioeconomical barriers; race economics.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A23 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Graduate
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:col:000093:020190. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Facultad de Ciencias Economicas Unal (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/funalco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.