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Race-related Research in Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Advani, Arun

    (University of Warwick & IFS)

  • Ash, Elliott

    (ETH Zurich)

  • Boltachka, Anton

    (ETH Zurich)

  • Cai, David

    (LSE)

  • Rasul, Imran

    (UCL & IFS)

Abstract

Issues of racial justice and economic inequalities between racial and ethnic groups have risen to the top of public debate. Economists ability to contribute to these debates is based on the body of race-related research. We study the volume and content of race-related research in economics. We base our analysis on a corpus of 225 000 economics publications from 1960 to 2020 to which we apply an algorithmic approach to classify race-related work. We present three new facts. First, since 1960 less than 2% of economics publications have been race-related. There is an uptick in such work in the mid 1990s. Among the top-5 journals this is driven by the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Political Economy. Econometrica and the Review of Economic Studies have each cumulatively published fewer than 15 race-related articles since 1960. Second, on content, while over 50% of race-related publications in the 1970s focused on Black individuals, by the 2010s this had fallen to 20%. There has been a steady decline in the share of race-related research on discrimination since the 1980s, with a rise in the share of studies on identity. Finally, we apply our algorithm to NBER and CEPR working papers posted over the last four decades, to study an earlier stage of the research process. We document a balkanization of race-related research into a few fields, and its continued absence from many others – a result that holds even within the subset of research examining issues of inequality or diversity. We discuss implications of our findings for economists’ ability to contribute to debates on race and ethnicity in the economy. JEL Codes: A11 ; B41.

Suggested Citation

  • Advani, Arun & Ash, Elliott & Boltachka, Anton & Cai, David & Rasul, Imran, 2025. "Race-related Research in Economics," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1548, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:1548
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

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