Improving Diversity in Economics: Programs Making a Difference

Diversity in the field of economics is crucial. One of the highest-ranking economists in the United States agrees.

“Diversity is important in ensuring that the research that is done within economics appropriately reflects society’s priorities,” Janet Yellen, who currently serves as Treasury Secretary, said in September 2019 at a panel sponsored by the Brookings Institution. Yellen also served as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018.

“Diversity is important in ensuring that the research that is done within economics appropriately reflects society’s priorities.”
— Janet Yellen

Yet, according to 2016 research from economists Amanda Bayer and Cecilia Elena Rouse, only 28.4% of bachelor’s degrees in economics were awarded to female students and only 14.7% to underrepresented minority students in 2014.

Many universities and institutions, including the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, are working toward greater diversity in economics. So, what exactly is being done? Several recent initiatives have targeted the issue, including:

• The Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge
• Early mentoring programs, such as the American Economic Association Summer Program
• The St. Louis Fed’s Women in Economics Symposium and Podcast Series

Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge Project

The lack of diversity in economics begins at the undergraduate level, with men in the U.S. outnumbering women as economics majors 3 to 1, according to a 2018 paper by Columbia Ph.D. student Tatyana Avilova and Harvard professor Claudia Goldin on the project they lead, the Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge.

Beginning in the 2015-2016 academic year, the project enlisted 20 “treatment universities” that instituted interventions and at least 30 control universities that kept their programs the same. Treatment universities were provided with funding to start initiatives intended to increase the number of women majoring in economics. Initiatives include providing better information to students, mentoring and role models, and enhanced instructional content and presentation methods, according to a program list of potential interventions (PDF).

Better information provides undergraduate women with examples of ways economics can be broadly applied outside the realm of finance and consulting. Participating universities were encouraged to highlight different career opportunities.

Mentoring and role models aim to create networks between faculty and students to provide economics students with greater support. One important piece of advice from this intervention: Making mistakes is part of learning economics. This advice is important because women in introductory economics classes are more sensitive to their grades, according to a study by Goldin, “Gender and the Undergraduate Economics Major (PDF).”

Enhanced instructional content and presentation methods include strategies that use diverse teaching methods to help undergraduate women gain confidence in their quantitative skills.

Final results aren’t available, according to information on the project on the Harvard University website, but preliminary results at Southern Methodist University were promising, according to Avilova and Goldin’s 2018 paper. The university had female economics graduates visit introductory economics classes and discuss how their background in economics helped them find interesting and valuable careers. After the visits, the number of women enrolled in an intermediate economics course increased by eight percentage points within a year.

Presence of Role Models

The lack of diversity in economics runs through the academic “pipeline,” meaning the number of women and underrepresented minorities is low for faculty members as well as students.

While earlier studies have found no relationship between the number of female faculty in the economics department and the number of women majoring in economics, more recent ones have found women and underrepresented minorities performed “significantly better” in introductory courses that were taught by women or underrepresented minorities, according to an article by Bayer and Rouse. The article, “Diversity in the Economics Profession: A New Attack on an Old Problem,” was published in the Fall 2016 Journal of Economic Perspectives.

The authors noted that future studies might investigate how to reproduce the benefits of faculty role models in programs that don’t yet have enough women and minority economists.

Early Mentoring Programs: American Economic Association Summer Program

The AEA is working to increase diversity in economics, in part through the use of mentoring programs.

The AEA hosts an annual summer program that provides participants with guidance and support while preparing them for graduate school. Participants have the chance to receive extensive training in microeconomics, mathematics, econometrics and research methods to help build a foundation for pursuing an advanced degree. Participating students also get the chance to work alongside prominent professors and develop career-long mentorships.

“Broadening the pipeline is one way to try to address the problem of diversity,” Lisa Cook, director of the program, said in a February 2019 interview for the Women in Economics Podcast Series. Cook also is a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Women in Economics Symposium and Podcast Series

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is also working to create more diversity in economics. The St. Louis Fed hosts an annual Women in Economics Symposium. The symposium gives attendees the opportunity to listen to keynote speakers, network and learn more about economics. The theme for the 2021 symposium was making a difference in the world using economics.

Keynote speakers, including Cook and Abigail Wozniak, director of the Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, spoke about solving world problems with economic data and analysis. The symposium also offered breakout sessions about various opportunities for those with an economics degree.

The St. Louis Fed also produces the podcast series. (See box.)

The series, whose 50th episode was released in September 2021, highlights the careers and studies of women making their marks in the field of economics. Interviewees have included:

• Amanda Bayer, professor of economics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and visiting senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
• Kristen Broady, a fellow at Brookings Metro and a professor of financial economics at Dillard University in New Orleans
• Mary Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Betsey Stevenson, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan and faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research

In an episode featuring Betsey Stevenson, she described the need for diversity in economics.

“There’s two reasons why we need diversity,” Stevenson said. “One is so we improve as a field: We do better economics, better research, and understand the world better.

“The second reason we need diversity is so that we can have more influence in the world by bringing diverse perspectives into policy-making circles, into the public sphere, so that we can ensure that a rich and diverse version of economics is brought into the public domain.”