Title: Chapter 7 The challenge of creating a more diverse economics
Description: This paper reflects on the experience of the 1999–2002 minority
pipeline program (MPP) at the University of California, Riverside. With
support from the American Economic Association, the MPP identifi ed
students of color interested in economics, let them explore economic
issues aff ecting minority communities, and encouraged them to
consider postgraduate work in economics. The MPP’s successes and
failures can be traced to the shifting balance in California’s racialized
political economy, especially a state ballot initiative forbidding the
use of applicant race or ethnicity in University of California admission
decisions, and to the transformation of economics itself, especially at
the level of doctoral training. The MPP experience may be of relevance
for other eff orts to increase racial/ethnic diversity in social science
disciplines.
Subjects: Economics, finance, business & management