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.

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.