Dear Staff Colleagues -
I am writing to let you know about two important new NBER initiatives.
First, to support and showcase economic research on the causes and
consequences of racial disparities in economic outcomes, and to
stimulate research on race in all aspects of economic analysis, the NBER
is launching a Working Group on Race and Stratification in the Economy.
I am delighted that Research Associate Trevon Logan, the Hazel C.
Youngberg Distinguished Professor of Economics at The Ohio State
University, has agreed to serve as the inaugural director. The group
will take a broad approach to the economics of race, considering the
factors that contribute to racial differences in income, wealth,
housing, educational attainment, labor market outcomes, economic
mobility, and a range of other measures. It will explore economic
models of discrimination and social stratification, as well as insights
on these issues from other social sciences. It will consider the role
of public policies and political institutions in contributing to, and
ameliorating, racial differences. More broadly, it will encourage new
approaches to economic analysis of race in a variety of settings.
The group will meet twice each year, beginning with a virtual meeting in
April 2021. These gatherings will bring together researchers from many
sub-fields of economics who are studying race in the economy. A call
for papers for the first meeting will be circulated in next month.
Second, I have created a new NBER post-doctoral fellowship that will
support a year of research by an early-career scholar who is a member of
a group that has been under-represented historically in the economics
profession, or who is studying issues of diversity in our profession.
Information on this fellowship may be found at:
https://www.nber.org/call-applications-post-doctoral-fellowship-promote-diversity-economics-profession
I hope that we will all be able to welcome the inaugural fellow to the
NBER offices, in person, next fall!
I look forward to seeing you at our staff meeting tomorrow morning
(Wednesday) starting at 10am. All best wishes.
Jim
Received on Tue Nov 17 2020 - 09:18:49 EST
