ISC Member, the International Economics Association (IEA) invites you to the first of a series of online conversations on “Diversifying Economics Globally” featuring Claudio Ferraz (UBC and PUC-Rio), Jayati Ghosh (University of Massachusetts), Arjun Jayadev (Azim Premji University and Institute for New Economic Thinking) and Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton and African School of Economics), and moderated by Dani Rodrik, IEA President (Harvard University).
Economics is currently undergoing a soul searching with respect to its gender and racial imbalances. There are many new initiatives underway in North America and Western Europe to address these problems. A missing component of this discussion on diversity is the geographic one – the relative scarcity of voices from the rest of the world in what should be a global discipline.
A great number of economists and institutions of economic research remain outside the networks based in the advanced nations that define the frontiers of Economics. For the bulk of economics researchers in low- and middle-income countries, accessing and participating in these networks is difficult. The barriers are sometimes related to training. But often they have to do with lack of information, social contacts, or mentorship, and the clubby nature of the profession. This center-periphery division makes Economics poorer, depriving it of new ideas, new problems to work on, and new talents. In these conversations we will discuss how these barriers can be reduced and Economics can be made a truly global discipline.
Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash