Why a lack of diversity hurts economics—and economists

Four economists from diverse backgrounds explain why diversity is essential, and what needs to happen to achieve it.

Howard University’s recent announcement that it will host the American Economic Association Summer Training and Scholarship Program (AEASP) comes at a time when the economics profession finds itself grappling with a decades-old problem: a lack of diversity.

Four economists from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, two each from Amazon and Howard University, recently shared their perspectives on the challenges and potential solutions.

Headshots of Gerald E. Daniels Jr., Jevay Grooms, Muthoni Ngatia and Henrique Romero.
From top left, clockwise: Gerald E. Daniels Jr., associate professor of economics and associate director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Economics at Howard; Jevay Grooms, assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Howard; Muthoni Ngatia, a current Amazon and former World Bank economist; and Henrique Romero, a senior economist with Amazon’s Supply Chain Optimization Technologies division.

Gerald E. Daniels Jr., associate professor of economics and associate director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Economics at Howard University; Jevay Grooms, assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Howard University; Muthoni Ngatia, a current Amazon and former World Bank economist; and Henrique Romero, a senior economist with Amazon’s Supply Chain Optimization Technologies division, addressed questions on why the problem of diversity within the economics field persists, what can be done, and how their life experiences have influenced their work as economists.

Why does the economics profession still struggle with diversity?

Muthoni Ngatia: The lack of diversity in economics becomes self-reinforcing when potential students don’t see themselves represented in the profession. It’s difficult to imagine yourself succeeding in a profession when you can’t find models in people with your lived experience.

There’s also an information barrier about what economics is, the type of work economists do, and how to prepare for a career in economics. Even in college, many of my classmates saw economics as a pathway to a career in investment banking or management consulting, which it certainly can be, however, there many more career opportunities available.

Jevay Grooms: There are many reasons. One that I found challenging, and almost prevented me from pursuing it, is very few people in the profession look like me. If you don't see anyone who looks like you in the profession, it could be difficult to imagine yourself in the domain. I also think there is a misconception about the scope of work economists do. As an undergraduate student, I didn't realize economists did work on social policies and disparities, the work that I do now.

Henrique Romero: The process of becoming an economist is long, arduous and rife with potential barriers to diversity. It takes a conscious effort to fight the inertia of the status quo at all steps along the way. For instance, economics departments mostly recruit talent from top PhD programs, which in turn tend to recruit PhD students from elite undergraduate institutions, which already suffer from a lack of representation. A forthcoming paper by Chetty et al. shows that at top-ranked universities, more students come from families in the top 1% than the bottom half of the income distribution.

What needs to happen to get individuals from more diverse backgrounds both interested in—and working—in economics?

Gerald E. Daniels Jr.: Outreach at every level of a student’s education is required to get more folks interested and working in economics. If a company, think tank, university, etc. has a sincere interest in diverse candidates, they should make a conscious effort to speak with and train the various candidates that they need. Therefore, if a company is searching for economists from underrepresented groups, create internships dedicated to universities that actively recruit and support these students. This approach can be extended to any diverse group. I would encourage anyone who needs help, to ask or hire folks like myself to support you.

Ngatia: More information about what economics is, the type of work economists do, and how to prepare for a career in economics. I think there’s a lot to be learned from programs working to get more diversity in STEM. Nurturing programs starting in high school and continuing into college can introduce a more diverse set of students to economics and how economists use data to understand and find potential solutions for social problems. Mentoring programs are also incredibly important to help students and economists throughout the pipeline advance.

Founders Library at Howard University on a sunny day
Founders Library at Howard University is seen on a sunny day. Howard recently announced it will host the AEASP “in support of increasing the pipeline of underrepresented minority economists.”
Oscar Merrida IV

Grooms: I think the onus needs to be on the entire profession. It cannot just be underrepresented groups pushing for more diversity. All economists need to acknowledge the importance of diverse backgrounds and a diversity of thought, and see it as a benefit and not a threat. Race disparities, racial inequality, systemic racism, and systems of oppression need not be taboo words but rather, words that we, as economists, acknowledge play a role in societal outcomes. For too long, economists have taken the "I don't see race" approach in research and this undermines the fight to address systemic racism.

Romero: I was the direct beneficiary of AEASP, which provides intensive training in microeconomics, math, econometrics, and research methods with the explicit goal of increasing racial and ethnic diversity. The program seems to be effective at increasing the likelihood of participants to apply to —and attend — a PhD program in economics, complete such programs, and work in an economics-related academic job (Becker et al., 2016). Although I will forever be indebted to this program, I must recognize that programs like this are difficult and costly to scale and can only be one part of a much broader solution. Bayer and Rouse (2016) provide an excellent overview of the state of diversity in the profession and discuss some promising initiatives. A full solution will likely require more equal access to education, from pre-k to PhD.

Why are diverse perspectives important to economics? How does the lack of them hinder economics?

Ngatia: Economic models require assumptions about how individuals and communities behave, those models are only as valid as they are representative of the diversity of human experience. The way we think about how humans behave necessarily depends on the humans we interact with, so a lack of diversity limits perspectives that could inform economic models. Advances in economics, or in any science really, are made by challenging existing modes of thinking. Having the same group of people in the profession limits the set problems they look at, and the tools they use.

Grooms: We have seen what a lack of diverse perspectives results in. To name a few: mass incarceration, the over-criminalization of crack cocaine relative to powdered cocaine, redlining, the overrepresentation of Black children in the foster care system, segregated schooling well after Brown v. Board of Education, and the Tuskegee experiment. Economists help shape social policy, and if we strive to be inclusive in our policymaking, we much also be inclusive in our research.

Daniels: If we allow ourselves to assume that policymakers and researchers prioritize topics that relate to their lived experience, then a lack of diversity inherently produces a lack of prioritization of research areas impacting those not represented. This is clear in the lack of research on a host of topics related to racial, gender, and LGBTQIA+ inequities. Diversity is our vehicle for producing innovative work, and a lack of diversity hinders our ability to innovate efficiently. In addition, innovating with a diverse group of people helps us to address issues that affect everyone.

How has your work as an economist been influenced by your life experiences?

Ngatia: Growing up in Kenya, I always knew I wanted to work in a capacity that would improve people’s livelihoods. When I came to college in the US, I wanted to pursue computer science. I was convinced (and still am) that the digital revolution would change the lives of many in Africa and I wanted to be a part of bringing that about. However, the first time I’d ever used a computer was when I was 16 and came to the US on an exchange program. My first semester in college, I felt completely out of my depth in my computer class.

Economics helped give me a framework to understand some of the development challenges facing Kenya and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Muthoni Ngatia

My economics class was the complete opposite. Whereas my CS class seemed abstract, economics—with a focus on decision making with scarce resources—made more sense to me. Economics helped give me a framework to understand some of the development challenges facing Kenya and much of sub-Saharan Africa. Perhaps most importantly, I found an incredible mentor in Michael Kremer, one of my professors (and recent Nobel Laureate in Economics) who took a personal interest in me. Much of his research was in Kenya, and his work inspired me to see how economics could be a force for improving people’s lives.

Grooms: My work as an economist has always been motivated by racial and ethnic equality. I imagine a lot of this has to do with growing up a Black girl in a predominantly white society. As an undergraduate, I learned that economics could help solve — or bring to light — issues that impact vulnerable and historically oppressed communities, and I think that has been the underlining theme in my work today.

Romero: Having grown up in one of the most unequal countries in the world (Brazil), equity concerns are always salient to me. Luckily, this aligns very well with Amazon’s Customer Obsession and Earns Trust leadership principles. For instance, we will refrain from enacting changes that would improve the customer experiences of a group of customers at the cost of disproportionally degrading the experience of another group, even if the changes result in an overall improvement in short-term metrics.

In an effort to be a small part of the solution in increasing diversity, I have also devoted time to being involved in the hiring, recruiting, and development process at Amazon, from participating in over 150 interviews, becoming a Bar Raiser in Training, managing the Economist Mentoring program, to representing Amazon at university campus visits and diversity-focused conferences such as SACNAS.

Research areas

Related content

US, WA, Seattle
We are looking for detail-oriented, organized, and responsible individuals who are eager to learn how to work with large and complicated data sets. Knowledge of econometrics, as well as basic familiarity with Python (or R, Matlab, or equivalent) is necessary, and experience with SQL would be a plus. These are full-time positions at 40 hours per week, with compensation being awarded on an hourly basis. You will learn how to build data sets and perform applied econometric analysis at Internet speed collaborating with economists, scientists, and product managers. These skills will translate well into writing applied chapters in your dissertation and provide you with work experience that may help you with placement. Roughly 85% of previous cohorts have converted to full time scientist employment at Amazon. If you are interested, please send your CV to our mailing list at econ-internship@amazon.com.
US, WA, Bellevue
As an applied scientist, you will use your experience to initiate the design, development, execution and implementation of scientific research projects. Working closely with fellow research scientists and product managers, you will use your experience in modeling, statistics, and simulation to design models of new policies, simulate their performance, and evaluate their benefits and impacts to cost, reliability, and speed of our fulfillment network. Our teams are looking for experience in network and combinatorial optimization, algorithms, data structures, statistics, and/or machine learning. This position requires superior analytical thinking, and ability to apply their technical and statistical knowledge to identify opportunities for real world applications. You should be able to mine and analyze large data, and be able to use necessary programming and statistical analysis software/tools to do so. Amazon has positions available for Research Scientists in multiple locations across the US and Canada.
US, WA, Virtual Contact Center-WA
We are looking for detail-oriented, organized, and responsible individuals who are eager to learn how to work with large and complicated data sets. Some knowledge of econometrics, as well as basic familiarity with Python is necessary, and experience with SQL and UNIX would be a plus. These are full-time positions at 40 hours per week, with compensation being awarded on an hourly basis. You will learn how to build data sets and perform applied econometric analysis at Internet speed collaborating with economists, scientists, and product managers. These skills will translate well into writing applied chapters in your dissertation and provide you with work experience that may help you with placement. Roughly 85% of previous cohorts have converted to full time scientist employment at Amazon. If you are interested, please send your CV to our mailing list at econ-internship@amazon.com. About the team The Selling Partner Fees team owns the end-to-end fees experience for two million active third party sellers. We own the fee strategy, fee seller experience, fee accuracy and integrity, fee science and analytics, and we provide scalable technology to monetize all services available to third-party sellers. Within the Science team, our goal is to understand the impact of changing fees on Seller (supply) and Customers (demand) behavior (e.g. price changes, advertising strategy changes, introducing new selection etc.) as well as using this information to optimize our fee structure and maximizing our long term profitability.
US, WA, Seattle
This is a unique opportunity to build technology and science that millions of people will use every day. Are you excited about working on large scale Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL)? We are embarking on a multi-year journey to improve the shopping experience for customers globally. Amazon Search team creates customer-focused search solutions and technologies that makes shopping delightful and effortless for our customers. Our goal is to understand what customers are looking for in whatever language happens to be their choice at the moment and help them find what they need in Amazon's vast catalog of billions of products. As Amazon expands to new geographies, we are faced with the unique challenge of maintaining the bar on Search Quality due to the diversity in user preferences, multilingual search and data scarcity in new locales. We are looking for an applied researcher to work on improving search on Amazon using NLP, ML, and DL technology. As an Applied Scientist, you will lead our efforts in query understanding, semantic matching (e.g. is a drone the same as quadcopter?), relevance ranking (what is a "funny halloween costume"?), language identification (did the customer just switch to their mother tongue?), machine translation (猫の餌を注文する). This is a highly visible role with a huge impact on Amazon customers and business. As part of this role, you will develop high precision, high recall, and low latency solutions for search. Your solutions should work for all languages that Amazon supports and will be used in all Amazon locales world-wide. You will develop scalable science and engineering solutions that work successfully in production. You will work with leaders to develop a strategic vision and long term plans to improve search globally. We are growing our collaborative group of engineers and applied scientists by expanding into new areas. This is a position on Global Search Quality team in Seattle Washington. We are moving fast to change the way Amazon search works. Together with a multi-disciplinary team you will work on building solutions with NLP/ML/DL at its core. Along the way, you’ll learn a ton, have fun and make a positive impact on millions of people. Come and join us as we invent new ways to delight Amazon customers.
US, WA, Seattle
This is a unique opportunity to build technology and science that millions of people will use every day. Are you excited about working on large scale Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL)? We are embarking on a multi-year journey to improve the shopping experience for customers globally. Amazon Search team creates customer-focused search solutions and technologies that makes shopping delightful and effortless for our customers. Our goal is to understand what customers are looking for in whatever language happens to be their choice at the moment and help them find what they need in Amazon's vast catalog of billions of products. As Amazon expands to new geographies, we are faced with the unique challenge of maintaining the bar on Search Quality due to the diversity in user preferences, multilingual search and data scarcity in new locales. We are looking for an applied researcher to work on improving search on Amazon using NLP, ML, and DL technology. As an Applied Scientist, you will lead our efforts in query understanding, semantic matching (e.g. is a drone the same as quadcopter?), relevance ranking (what is a "funny halloween costume"?), language identification (did the customer just switch to their mother tongue?), machine translation (猫の餌を注文する). This is a highly visible role with a huge impact on Amazon customers and business. As part of this role, you will develop high precision, high recall, and low latency solutions for search. Your solutions should work for all languages that Amazon supports and will be used in all Amazon locales world-wide. You will develop scalable science and engineering solutions that work successfully in production. You will work with leaders to develop a strategic vision and long term plans to improve search globally. We are growing our collaborative group of engineers and applied scientists by expanding into new areas. This is a position on Global Search Quality team in Seattle Washington. We are moving fast to change the way Amazon search works. Together with a multi-disciplinary team you will work on building solutions with NLP/ML/DL at its core. Along the way, you’ll learn a ton, have fun and make a positive impact on millions of people. Come and join us as we invent new ways to delight Amazon customers.
US, WA, Seattle
The retail pricing science and research group is a team of scientists and economists who design and implement the analytics powering pricing for Amazon’s on-line retail business. The team uses world-class analytics to make sure that the prices for all of Amazon’s goods and services are aligned with Amazon’s corporate goals. We are seeking an experienced high-energy Economist to help envision, design and build the next generation of retail pricing capabilities. You will work at the intersection of economic theory, statistical inference, and machine learning to design new methods and pricing strategies to deliver game changing value to our customers. Roughly 85% of previous intern cohorts have converted to full time scientist employment at Amazon. If you are interested, please send your CV to our mailing list at econ-internship@amazon.com. Key job responsibilities Amazon’s Pricing Science and Research team is seeking an Economist to help envision, design and build the next generation of pricing capabilities behind Amazon’s on-line retail business. As an economist on our team, you will work at the intersection of economic theory, statistical inference, and machine learning to design new methods and pricing strategies with the potential to deliver game changing value to our customers. This is an opportunity for a high-energy individual to work with our unprecedented retail data to bring cutting edge research into real world applications, and communicate the insights we produce to our leadership. This position is perfect for someone who has a deep and broad analytic background and is passionate about using mathematical modeling and statistical analysis to make a real difference. You should be familiar with modern tools for data science and business analysis. We are particularly interested in candidates with research background in applied microeconomics, econometrics, statistical inference and/or finance. A day in the life Discussions with business partners, as well as product managers and tech leaders to understand the business problem. Brainstorming with other scientists and economists to design the right model for the problem in hand. Present the results and new ideas for existing or forward looking problems to leadership. Deep dive into the data. Modeling and creating working prototypes. Analyze the results and review with partners. Partnering with other scientists for research problems. About the team The retail pricing science and research group is a team of scientists and economists who design and implement the analytics powering pricing for Amazon’s on-line retail business. The team uses world-class analytics to make sure that the prices for all of Amazon’s goods and services are aligned with Amazon’s corporate goals.
US, CA, San Francisco
The retail pricing science and research group is a team of scientists and economists who design and implement the analytics powering pricing for Amazon's on-line retail business. The team uses world-class analytics to make sure that the prices for all of Amazon's goods and services are aligned with Amazon's corporate goals. We are seeking an experienced high-energy Economist to help envision, design and build the next generation of retail pricing capabilities. You will work at the intersection of statistical inference, experimentation design, economic theory and machine learning to design new methods and pricing strategies for assessing pricing innovations. Roughly 85% of previous intern cohorts have converted to full time scientist employment at Amazon. If you are interested, please send your CV to our mailing list at econ-internship@amazon.com. Key job responsibilities Amazon's Pricing Science and Research team is seeking an Economist to help envision, design and build the next generation of pricing capabilities behind Amazon's on-line retail business. As an economist on our team, you will will have the opportunity to work with our unprecedented retail data to bring cutting edge research into real world applications, and communicate the insights we produce to our leadership. This position is perfect for someone who has a deep and broad analytic background and is passionate about using mathematical modeling and statistical analysis to make a real difference. You should be familiar with modern tools for data science and business analysis. We are particularly interested in candidates with research background in experimentation design, applied microeconomics, econometrics, statistical inference and/or finance. A day in the life Discussions with business partners, as well as product managers and tech leaders to understand the business problem. Brainstorming with other scientists and economists to design the right model for the problem in hand. Present the results and new ideas for existing or forward looking problems to leadership. Deep dive into the data. Modeling and creating working prototypes. Analyze the results and review with partners. Partnering with other scientists for research problems. About the team The retail pricing science and research group is a team of scientists and economists who design and implement the analytics powering pricing for Amazon's on-line retail business. The team uses world-class analytics to make sure that the prices for all of Amazon's goods and services are aligned with Amazon's corporate goals.
US, WA, Bellevue
We are looking for detail-oriented, organized, and responsible individuals who are eager to learn how to work with large and complicated data sets. Some knowledge of econometrics, as well as basic familiarity with Python is necessary, and experience with SQL and UNIX would be a plus. These are full-time positions at 40 hours per week, with compensation being awarded on an hourly basis. You will learn how to build data sets and perform applied econometric analysis at Internet speed collaborating with economists, scientists, and product managers. These skills will translate well into writing applied chapters in your dissertation and provide you with work experience that may help you with placement. Roughly 85% of interns from previous cohorts have converted to full time economics employment at Amazon. If you are interested, please send your CV to our mailing list at econ-internship@amazon.com.
US
The Amazon Supply Chain Optimization Technology (SCOT) organization is looking for an Intern in Economics to work on exciting and challenging problems related to Amazon's worldwide inventory planning. SCOT provides unique opportunities to both create and see the direct impact of your work on billions of dollars’ worth of inventory, in one of the world’s most advanced supply chains, and at massive scale. We are looking for detail-oriented, organized, and responsible individuals who are eager to learn how to work with large and complicated data sets. We are looking for a PhD candidate with exposure to Program Evaluation/Causal Inference. Knowledge of econometrics and Stata/R/or Python is necessary, and experience with SQL, Hadoop, and Spark would be a plus. These are full-time positions at 40 hours per week, with compensation being awarded on an hourly basis. You will learn how to build data sets and perform applied econometric analysis at Internet speed collaborating with economists, scientists, and product managers. These skills will translate well into writing applied chapters in your dissertation and provide you with work experience that may help you with placement. Roughly 85% of previous cohorts have converted to full time scientist employment at Amazon. If you are interested, please send your CV to our mailing list at econ-internship@amazon.com.
US, WA, Seattle
The Selling Partner Fees team owns the end-to-end fees experience for two million active third party sellers. We own the fee strategy, fee seller experience, fee accuracy and integrity, fee science and analytics, and we provide scalable technology to monetize all services available to third-party sellers. We are looking for an Intern Economist with excellent coding skills to design and develop rigorous models to assess the causal impact of fees on third party sellers’ behavior and business performance. As a Science Intern, you will have access to large datasets with billions of transactions and will translate ambiguous fee related business problems into rigorous scientific models. You will work on real world problems which will help to inform strategic direction and have the opportunity to make an impact for both Amazon and our Selling Partners.