The problem of the 21st century: Economics faculty and the color line

With historical data on black economist hirings in Ph.D. granting economics programs and the supply of new black economics doctorates in the United States, this paper examines the conventional pipeline explanation for the dearth of blacks on economics faculties. Parameter estimates from count data specifications of a demand–supply relationship reveal that increases in the supply of new black economics doctorates do not increase, but instead decrease the likelihood of a Ph.D. granting economics department hiring black economists. Our results suggest that black economists are underrepresented on the faculties of Ph.D. granting economics departments by at least a factor of two. Instead of there simply being too few blacks earning economics doctorates to fill faculty jobs—the so-called pipeline problem—there appears to be a “color line” problem in that race explains the underrepresentation of blacks on the economics faculties of Ph.D. granting departments in the U.S.