THREAD—Most economists don't care about studying gender or race—because the vast majority are white men promarket.org/economics-lack… via @ProMarket_org
@ProMarket_org "Economists are still in the dark about the role of gender. For economics to be credible, we have to recognize that our knowledge is incomplete and learn from the diversity of humanity and experiences in our own profession." forbes.com/sites/pedrodac…
@ProMarket_org "Economics is a social science. But if 80 percent of women and 60 percent of men disagree with the climate in our profession, one must wonder how good our science really is. Evidently, there is a huge gap in our knowledge when it comes to gender and diversity.
"And if we can’t solve our own problems, one must wonder how good our policy recommendations are."
"As economists, we are still like drunkards searching for keys under the streetlight. We look where the light is, not where the keys are.
"In graduate school, I was told to read the newspaper to get ideas for papers. This is still common advice to graduate students. But what have newspapers traditionally shone a light on? The behavior of men.
"Men held and hold positions of power in politics and business and thus have historically been deemed more newsworthy.
"More and more women are entering positions of power, yet because we have not fully studied women, we are still in the dark about when and why gender matters for many economic outcomes. Even worse, we hate to admit that we are in the dark."
"It is OK to look at the streetlight. What is not OK is to ignore the fact that the keys are in the dark. If we really care about uncovering 'economic truths,' we have to recognize that our knowledge is incomplete."
"Our profession’s lack of understanding of gender and diversity is not innocuous. Presumably, it is one reason the climate in our profession is so poor. But it also affects what gets published (or not) and our influence on policy (or lack thereof)."
"Without a good understanding of gender, one can always argue there is some unobservable that might be driving the results in any paper on gender. But since the unobservable is, by definition, unobservable, as an author one can never address these concerns."
"The results of the AEA’s professional climate survey should serve as a call to action. To be credible, we have to understand the role of gender. To have influence, we have to understand the role of gender.
"To attract both men and women to our field, we have to understand the role of gender. To retain both men and women in our field, we have to understand the role of gender. To be happy, we have to understand the role of gender. Let’s put the 'social' back into our science."
