Penn Wharton Conference on Race and Economics

In honor of Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

Hosted virtually, October 16, 2020

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

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

Arts and Sciences - Wharton University of Pennsylvania

Presented by

The University of Pennsylvania Economics Department
The Wharton School Department of Business Economics and Public Policy