Info.Econ: Increasing Diversity among Economics Majors
- (pp. 133-37)
Abstract
We analyze an intervention that provided information from diverse voices about breadth, opportunities, and grade distributions in economics. In 2020, the year of a global pandemic, randomized control trials delivered videos/infographics and letters to students in Michigan State University's introductory classes. We find suggestive evidence, due to large standard errors, that the video treatment differentially increases the intentions of female and underrepresented minority (URM) students to take additional courses and major in economics. The video treatment increased the probability of URM students' self-reported chances of taking another economics course by 6 percentage points, 11 percent above the baseline, relative to the control group.Citation
Chambers, Andrea, Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Carey Elder, Steven J. Haider, and Scott Imberman. 2021. "Info.Econ: Increasing Diversity among Economics Majors." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 111: 133-37. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211026Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- A14 Sociology of Economics
- A22 Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: Undergraduate
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination