Bridging barriers: how COVID-19 changed racial diversity in economics seminars

Marcus Biermann

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In this paper, new facts are documented on the racial distribution of seminar speakers in economics. From a sample of 270 institutions, I determined that before the COVID-19 pandemic, 82.5% of seminars were given by White speakers, 13.9% of seminars were given by Asian speakers, and 3.6% by speakers with a Hispanic-Latino or Black background. The racial distribution of speakers did not change globally. However, the share of speakers from underrepresented minorities in the United States almost doubled with the introduction of virtual seminars during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; economics seminars; racial inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 I23 J15 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06
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Published in Economics Letters, June, 2025, 252. ISSN: 0165-1765

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