Difference between revisions of "Consequences"

From Diversifying Economic Quality: A Wiki for Instructors and Departments

Jump to: navigation, search
Line 2: Line 2:
  
 
{| border="1" align="center" style="text-align:center;"
 
{| border="1" align="center" style="text-align:center;"
+
!
|Efficiency Effects
+
!Efficiency Effects
|Equity Effects
+
!Equity Effects
 
|-
 
|-
|in allocating people to professions
+
!in allocating people to professions
 
|wasted talent, if our methods dissuade women and minorities who would have been brilliant economists
 
|wasted talent, if our methods dissuade women and minorities who would have been brilliant economists
 
|unfair opportunity, if not everyone has an equal shot at experiencing the joys of being an economist, one of the most satisfying and useful occupations of all time
 
|unfair opportunity, if not everyone has an equal shot at experiencing the joys of being an economist, one of the most satisfying and useful occupations of all time
 
|-
 
|-
|in generating ideas and analyses within the discipline
+
!in generating ideas and analyses within the discipline
 
|inaccurate and incomplete analyses, since "sound economic analysis benefits from a broader range of perspectives and experiences in the profession" (Collins, 2000)
 
|inaccurate and incomplete analyses, since "sound economic analysis benefits from a broader range of perspectives and experiences in the profession" (Collins, 2000)
 
|inaccurate and incomplete analyses, if economic analysis overlooks the importance of factors that systematically disadvantage members of underrepresented groups, such as nonmarket production and social norms
 
|inaccurate and incomplete analyses, if economic analysis overlooks the importance of factors that systematically disadvantage members of underrepresented groups, such as nonmarket production and social norms
 
|-
 
|-
|in making government policy
+
!in making government policy
 
|inefficient policies:  
 
|inefficient policies:  
 
|inequitable policies: "Economists are the ones running the Federal Reserve Bank and making everyday decisions that will determine or even undermine the qualify of life of millions of African Americans." (Rhonda Williams) Only 1.2% of all Phd's in Economics are held by Blacks, despite representing 12.4% of the US population.   
 
|inequitable policies: "Economists are the ones running the Federal Reserve Bank and making everyday decisions that will determine or even undermine the qualify of life of millions of African Americans." (Rhonda Williams) Only 1.2% of all Phd's in Economics are held by Blacks, despite representing 12.4% of the US population.   

Revision as of 13:31, 19 July 2011

Does it matter that certain people, or members of certain groups, are less likely to become economists?

Efficiency Effects Equity Effects
in allocating people to professions wasted talent, if our methods dissuade women and minorities who would have been brilliant economists unfair opportunity, if not everyone has an equal shot at experiencing the joys of being an economist, one of the most satisfying and useful occupations of all time
in generating ideas and analyses within the discipline inaccurate and incomplete analyses, since "sound economic analysis benefits from a broader range of perspectives and experiences in the profession" (Collins, 2000) inaccurate and incomplete analyses, if economic analysis overlooks the importance of factors that systematically disadvantage members of underrepresented groups, such as nonmarket production and social norms
in making government policy inefficient policies: inequitable policies: "Economists are the ones running the Federal Reserve Bank and making everyday decisions that will determine or even undermine the qualify of life of millions of African Americans." (Rhonda Williams) Only 1.2% of all Phd's in Economics are held by Blacks, despite representing 12.4% of the US population.


Another reason women should be more involved in Economics is to increase the focus on issues related to women. For example, the alternative to working in the labor force is termed leisure. However, many women are actively involved in maintaining their households when not involved in the labor force. Women may view this term offensively. A woman economist would more likely call for a re evaluation of the term due to her personal interest in the matter. Lois Banfill Shaw, in the book 'Engendering economics: conversations with women economists in the United States' By Paulette I. Olson, Zohren Emami seconds this notion. She also mentions how women economists may be more adept/more likely to study issues such as, how social security reforms affect women, why there is discrimination against women in the work place and to consider equity to be as important as efficiency.



Here's an interesting article outlining why we need more Black Economists and reasons for their declining numbers. : Black economists: an 'elite clan of warrior intellectuals.' by Paul Ruffins, June 24, 2007 "the African-American community, as a whole, suffers when there aren't any African-American economists at the conference table when important decisions are being made." (Ruffins 1996, 18) "Once upon a time there was a little girl who wanted to know why some people had jobs and others didn't, so she took a course in economics. The textbook said that if you went to school and did the right things, you'd get a job. But she said, `that can't be right. I have four cousins in Chicago who finished school, who finished training programs, and who still don't have jobs.' So she studied some more."


[1] "The economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth. Until the Great Depression, most economists clung to a vision of capitalism as a perfect or nearly perfect system. That vision wasn’t sustainable in the face of mass unemployment, but as memories of the Depression faded, economists fell back in love with the old, idealized vision of an economy in which rational individuals interact in perfect markets, this time gussied up with fancy equations...Unfortunately, this romanticized and sanitized vision of the economy led most economists to ignore all the things that can go wrong...economists will have to learn to live with messiness."

survey of literature on effects of gender imbalance in the profession (Colander, Holmes, McCloskey, Feminist Economics,...) (Also, in the Making of an Economist, Colander finds the field better, grad core not. )