Why Do Economists Have Trouble Understanding Racialized Inequalities?
Based on survey data, @SurbhiKesar and I make some observations regarding the Economics discipline and its lack of capacity to deal with race... +
ineteconomics.org/perspectives/b…
Based on survey data, @SurbhiKesar and I make some observations regarding the Economics discipline and its lack of capacity to deal with race... +
ineteconomics.org/perspectives/b…
We find that economists in mainstream Econ depts are the least likely to teach about racial inequalities & colonialism (see figure). We believe the reason for this is the inadequate manner in which mainstream Econ theorises inequality, and race in particular. + 
We argue: "...the discipline falls markedly short of recognizing the structural, historical factors that are central for producing and perpetuating inequality across groups, both in terms of opportunities and outcomes." +
We contrast the mainstream's inadequate conceptualisation of racial inequalities with that of stratification economics (e.g. @DarrickHamilton, @SandyDarity) and radical political economy (e.g. Walter Rodney, Cedric Robison). +
We also argue that the mainstream of the field's incapacity to understand racial inequalities may be a part of the reason why the field has struggled so much with misogyny, racism, and a lack of diversity. +
This blind spot among economists has led to dangerously naive policy proposals in the face of #BLM and police brutality, with many economists calling for behavioural rather than structural solutions to racism. (as noted by @anastasiawils and @caseyrbuchholz in @CriticalDev) +
Some more concerning stats from the survey... The future doesn't look bright. +
Given that "young" academics are less likely to teach about these issues, the possibility of the discipline to engage more actively with the structural nature of these aspects appears rather dismal unless an active effort, such as that of a curriculum reform, is enacted.+
Teaching about racism and colonialism cannot be simply reduced to an issue of mainstream econ vs. the rest. See our results below re. what *where* you are based means for the likelihood of you teaching about racialized inequalities or the role of European colonialism.+
In terms of social identity, on average, those based in Global South, women, and those who have experienced exclusion based on their race, nationality, ethnicity, or religion, are significantly *more* likely to teach about racialized inequalities or European colonialism. +
Recognizing that mainstream Economics has a problem with understanding structural racism and incorporating historical legacies of colonialism in economic analysis is an important first step towards improving the field. +
We believe a change in the way economics is taught is important both in order to equip students with a better toolkit for understanding the world and to make economics more inclusive of Black students as well as students from other marginalized groups. +
Reversing some of the above-mentioned narrowing of the field that has taken place over the past half century to give a larger space for political economy and heterodox economics is an important first step towards improving the field. However, it is not necessarily sufficient. +
There is also a need for a reform in the Economics curriculum, involving a turn towards including structural racism (or structural aspects of any identity-based inequality) as a central aspect of economic reasoning and to unpack the racialized origins of our discipline. +
On one hand, such a curriculum reform would need to ensure an incorporation of strands from non-mainstream literature that engage with the issues of structural racism and other group-based identities. +
On the other hand, such a reform also warrants a critical evaluation of methods in Economics, which, mistakenly, are often perceived as value-neutral, but, instead, are blind to these biases, and tend to reproduce these biases as a precise result of such blindness. +
The outrage by many economists against the institutional racism associated with policy killings has been notable over the past month. It is time we direct this outrage towards our own discipline too. +
Some broader actions needed to tackle racism have been outlined by groups such as @DivDecEcon & @SadieCollective. Thank you @INETeconomics for publishing our post! We hope it can contribute to constructive debate on this issue. /end
