Diversity and Labor Market Outcomes in the Economics Profession
July 2022
Working Paper Number:
CES-22-26
Abstract
While the lack of gender and racial diversity in economics in academia (for students and professors) is well-established, less is known about the overall placement and earnings of economists by gender and race. Understanding demand-side factors is important, as improvements in the supply side by diversifying the pipeline alone may not be enough to improve equity in the profession. Using the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) linked to Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) jobs data, we examine placements and earnings for economists working in the U.S. after receiving a PhD by gender and race. We find enormous dispersion in pay for economists within and across sectors that grows over time. Female PhD economists earn about 12 percent less than their male colleagues on average; Black PhD economists earn about 15 percent less than their white counterparts on average; and overall underrepresented minority PhD economists earn about 8 percent less than their white counterparts. These pay disparities are attenuated in some sectors and when controlling for rank of PhD granting institution and employer.
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economist,
econometric,
black,
minority,
heterogeneity,
hiring,
salary,
disadvantaged,
socioeconomic,
disparity
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American Economic Association,
Internal Revenue Service,
National Science Foundation,
National Bureau of Economic Research,
Federal Reserve Bank,
Federal Reserve System,
Michigan Institute for Teaching and Research in Economics,
Journal of Economic Literature,
Educational Services,
North American Industry Classification System,
Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics,
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Public Administration,
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages,
Office of Personnel Management,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
State Energy Data System,
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Stanford University,
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Census Bureau Person Identification Validation System,
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
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