The Penn Wharton Conference on Race and Economics was hosted virtually on October 16, 2020, in honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander’s receipt of her PhD in economics from the Penn Economics Department.
The goal of the conference was two-fold: to promote current academic research by Black economists with an emphasis on topics of race in the United States, and to host panel discussions on racial inclusion in the profession and questions about how economics studies issues of race as a discipline.
Agenda
US Eastern Timezone
10:30 AM
Welcome
Wharton Dean Erika James: introductory remarks
Nina Banks: opening remarks on Sadie T. M. Alexander
11:00 AM
Paper Session 1: Historical wrongs and present implications
Chair: Gary Hoover
Paper 1: Jhacova Williams, “Historical Lynchings and the Contemporary Voting Behavior of Blacks”
Paper 2: Belinda Archibong, “Prison Labor: The Price of Prisons and the Lasting Effects of Incarceration”
Noon
Panel discussion on racial inclusion in economics
Chair: Lisa Cook
Panelists: Mackenzie Alston, Kory Kantenga, Modibo Sidibe
1:00 PM
Break
1:15 PM
Paper Session 2: Less money in, less money out
Chair: Gbenga Ajilore
Paper 1: Damon Jones, “Wealth, Race, and Consumption Smoothing of Typical Income Shocks”
Paper 2: Ellora Derenoncourt, “Minimum wages and racial inequality”
2:15 PM
Lecture on the history of the black-white wealth gap and reparations
William Darity, Jr.
Moderator: Bernard Anderson
followed by Q&A
3:15 PM
Break
3:30 PM
Paper Session 3: Unequal justice: race and policing
Chair: Jamein Cunningham
Paper 1: Bocar Ba, “Going the Extra Mile: the Cost of Complaint Filing, Accountability, and Law Enforcement Outcomes in Chicago”
Paper 2: Conrad Miller, “Racial Disparities in Motor Vehicle Searches Cannot Be Justified by Efficiency”
4:30 PM
Lecture and panel discussion on how economics studies race
Lecture: William Spriggs
Panelists: Dania Francis, Gary Hoover, Omari Swinton
5:30 PM
Networking happy hour
Breakout rooms assigned to scholars
Presented by
The University of Pennsylvania Economics Department
The Wharton School Department of Business Economics and Public Policy