This event was part of our online programme and took place on our Crowdcast channel. You can watch it HERE.

The lack of diversity in terms of gender and race in economics has received increased attention in recent years, but events following the death of African American George Floyd have caused economists to further reflect and rethink how they study long-simmering, systemic racial inequities. Economics is now having its #BlackLivesMatter moment as the discipline has been challenged about its Eurocentric nature. As well as considering the benefits of increasing racial and ethnic diversity for the economics profession, economists are also asking how economic theories explain today’s racial economic inequalities – and the extent to which colonialism is to blame? How does economics understand the links between racial inequalities and systemic racism?

The panel includes Keston Perry (UWE Bristol), Imran Rasul (University College London) and Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe (WISER) and chaired by Romesh Vaitilingam.

This event is part of our ninth Festival of Economics and is curated by Dr Carolina Alves (University of Cambridge) who is on the steering group of D-Econ.

It’s important to us that ideas and debate are affordable to everyone. It’s also important that our commentators, artists, writers, poets and thinkers are paid. This is a Pay What You Can event. You are invited to choose your own contribution to the event, from £0 to £8. All proceeds go towards supporting our speakers and sustaining Festival of Ideas. The option to attend for free is available for all online events.

In association with/

Panel

Keston Perry is a lecturer in economics and political economist at UWE Bristol. His work draws upon professional and academic spheres that seeks to understand the sources of institutional and economic change in developing countries, in particular why some countries and social groups come to exercise agency despite their marginalisation to transform their societies. Prior to entering academia, he was a government official in Trinidad and Tobago and consultant for several leading international organisations such as the UNDP, UNAIDS, UNFPA and UN-WOMEN. His academic and consultancy work now spans thematic areas related to industrial policy in resource wealthy countries, the nexus of climate policy and energy-development outcomes, and financialisation and industrial development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Follow him on Twitter @kestontnt.

Imran Rasul is a professor of economics at University College London, co-director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Research Programme Director in the Firms portfolio, at the International Growth Centre. Follow him on Twitter @ImranRasul3.

Dr Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe is the founder and President of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race.  She is the co-editor of the Review of Black Political Economy and served as the past President of the National Economic Association.  In 2020, she was selected to serve on the Center for American Progress’ National Advisory Council on Eliminating the Black-White Wealth Gap. Rhonda’s research focuses on three areas: gender and racial inequality, the diversity of STEM, and the demography of higher education.  Rhonda serves on the boards of the International Association of Feminist Economists and Diversifying and Decolonizing Economics. She is the co-founder (with Sandy Darity) of the Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics (DITE), for which she served as the Associate Director from 2008 to 2014. She is the co-recipient of the 2004 Rhonda Williams Prize from the International Association for Feminist Economists. 

Romesh Vaitilingam is an economics writer, communications consultant and editor-in-chief of the Economics Observatory. He is the author of several books and reports on economics, finance, business and public policy, including the Financial Times Guide to Using the Financial Pages, which has sold over a quarter of a million copies since 1993. Romesh also works with the economic research and policy-making community, including the Centre for Economic Policy Research and VoxEU, the European Economic Association, the IGM Forum’s Economic Experts Panels and the Royal Economic Society. In 2003, he was awarded an MBE for services to economic and social science. Follow him on Twitter @econromesh