National Economic Association Research Articles

National Economic Association (NEA) Accomplishments: February 2023 – January 2024

This article lists the NEA board’s main accomplishments during the period from February 2023 to January 2024 as summarized in my farewell letter to the NEA membership (sent on January 31, 2024).

Let’s See Far by Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: National Economic Association (NEA) Presidential Address

In this presidential address, I discuss findings from a survey that was sent to all living past presidents ([Formula: see text]) of the National Economic Association (NEA). Based on 14 responses, I discuss potential strategies and action items for future NEA boards to consider. This text was spoken aloud during the presidential address.

The Moral Burden on Economists: Darrick Hamilton’s 2017 NEA Presidential Address

In his 2017 presidential address to the National Economic Association (NEA), Professor Darrick Hamilton warned that treating economics as a morally neutral “science,” and the discipline’s limited attention to structural barriers and overemphasis individual agency, has resulted in bad economics, and bad policy particularly as it relates to racial disparity.

Statement from the National Economic Association (NEA)

Statement from the National Economic Association (NEA)

50 Years of Power and the Influence of the National Economic Association: Black Economist Contributions to Economics Profession

The National Economic Association (NEA) president addresses the membership body at the annual meeting. He reflects on the past presidents of the organization and their accomplishments. He then addresses his path through the NEA from a child to the president of the organization and the assistance that many provided along the way.

The National Economic Association at 50: Where Have We Come From and Where Are We Going?

The National Economic Association was founded as the Caucus of Black Economists in 1969. The organization was formed to address the underrepresentation of Black economists in the American Economic Association and in the profession at large. This article reviews key issues raised and how they were addressed. It also makes suggestions for future directions the NEA might take.

The National Economic Association at 50: Getting Back to Our Roots

The National Economic Association (NEA) started out as the Caucus of Black Economists in December 1969. At the onset of the 50th Anniversary of the NEA’s founding, this presidential address looks at the organization’s past, present, and future to improve the prospects for current and future African American economists. Three recommendations are offered: support The Review of Black Political Economy, the NEA’s journal; help develop regional student chapters; and continue to foster allies that are aligned with the NEA’s mission. The Economics field needs to be better about becoming diverse and inclusive, and the NEA can lead the movement toward those goals.

We’ve to Build the Pipeline. What’s the Problem? What’s Next? The Remix

Despite a history of initiatives to strengthen the doctorate pipeline and mentoring programs for graduate students and junior faculty, the economics profession has failed to achieve a representative level of diversity across ethnicity, gender and race. This National Economic Association presidential address looks at the 20-year production, 1996-2015, of economists by ethnicity, gender, race, and residential status with an interest in the production of Black economists. The findings suggest there is cause for alarm as the number of undergraduate economics degrees conferred to Black women was stagnant, and there has been a decrease in the number of doctorates conferred to Blacks men. In addition, the number of undergraduate mathematics degrees conferred to Blacks has decreased, which may have dire consequences for the economics and mathematics doctorate pipeline. Recommendations that promote the professional lives of Black and minority economists are provided.

The Report to the Union of National Economic Association in Japan on JAFEE and EIER (2004)

The Report to the Union of National Economic Association in Japan on JAFEE and EIER (2004)

The Report to the Union of National Economic Association in Japan on JAFEE and EIER (2010)

JAFEE has already had a history of over ten years since its foundation in 1997. During these years we have successfully achieved several initial goals as marked at the beginning of the society. Celebrating the first decade, we successfully published Handbook of Evolutionary Economics in September 2006 (in Japanese) as edited by the society as a whole. The handbook has already experienced its second printing. We now are running in the second decade of our history.

The Scholarly Status of Blacks in the Economics Profession: Have the National Economic Association and the Review of Black Political Economy Mattered?

This paper considers whether the National Economic Association and its journal the Review of Black Political Economy have enhanced the scholarly status of black economists. A bibliometric analysis reveals that while the typical black economist has never published in the Review of Black Political Economy, the share of black economists publishing in the Review of Black Economy approximates the share of all articles published on the economic and political economy of race by black economists, and the share of articles published in the Review of Black Political Economy by black economists appears higher than typical journals in economics–-particularly for black economists employed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We also find that similar to other economics journals non-black economists dominate the share of published articles, and publications in the Review of Black Political Economy appear to be consistent with Lotka's Law of scientific productivity suggesting that the journal is a standard outlet for research no different from any other science journal. Our results imply a plausible counterfactual that if the National Economic Association and Review of Black Political Economy did not exist, the scholarly status of blacks in the economics profession would have been lower than currently observed.

The Emergence of the Black Economic Research Center and the Review of Black Political Economy: 1969–1972

This essay discusses the legacy of Robert Browne in the founding of the Black Economic Research Center (BERC), The Review of Black Political Economy, and the Caucus of Black Economists and its evolvement into the National Economic Association. The launching of BERC occurred within a period of far-reaching social change and the Vietnam War era. During this time, Robert Browne also was a national leader of the Vietnam anti-war movement and one of the first public intellectuals to establish a link between the civil rights movement and the peace movement. An argument is developed that this background provided as much impetus to Robert Browne for the creation of BERC and The Review as did the black nationalist programs and conferences of that era. During his eleven year tenure as Director at BERC, he pioneered ground-breaking research on the status of black-owned land in the south; consulted with community development corporations, black-owned businesses and banks; and prompted innovations in modern black philanthropy through the establishment of the Twenty-First Century Foundation. The origin and justification for The Review of Black Political Economy and the early activities and meetings of the Caucus and NEA are emphasized. In addition, an effort is made to include an enumeration of the earliest contributors to BERC, the NEA, and The Review – many of whom have not been mentioned in previous retrospectives.

W. Artur Lewis Lecture: The Lewis Model of “Economic Growth with Unlimited Supplies of Labor”

The National Economic Association introduced the W. Arthur Lewis Distinguished Lecture series in December 1985. The Lewis Lecture is named in honor of the 1979 Nobel Laureate in Economics, much of whose research has been devoted to the problem of Third World economic development. A native of St. Lucia, in the former British West Indies, Arthur Lewis has risen to fame as the preeminent development economist of his generation. He is most famous for his 1954 Manchester School paper on economic development with unlimited supplies of labor, but his contributions span the fields of industrial organization, public finance, and international trade. He was one of the first to explore in depth the evidence on movements on terms of trade between industrialized and developing countries and was the first to perform a regression analysis in empirical trade research. Lewis was an active advisor to various governments in West Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia during the development decades. He says that he conceived of the idea of unlimited supplies of labor while on mission in Bangkok, Thailand in 1952. This third lecture in the series, by Professor Charles Kindleberger, examines the broad applicability of the Lewis model. Barbara A. P. Jones 1987 NEA President

Trade and Growth

The National Economic Association introduced the W. Arthur Lewis Distinguished Lecture series in December 1985 at the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings in New York City. The Lewis Lecture is named in honor of the 1979 Nobel Laureate in Economics, much of whose research has been devoted to the problem of Third World economic development. In the same spirit, the Lewis Lectures are intended to explore the themes of global inequality, Third World poverty, and prospects and possibilities for change. The inaugural Lewis address was delivered by Lance Taylor, professor of economics and nutrition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Taylor, an immensely creative economist, has led contemporary development economists in the analysis of disparities in the structural relationships between Northern (that is, more-developed) and Southern (that is, less-developed) countries. Taylor's subject matter, “Trade and Growth,” constituted both a provocative assessment of the state of knowledge in this area and a compelling indictment of the insights offered by conventional economics. Taylor's address, presented December 28, 1985, provides a sterling beginning to what promises to be an important lecture series.

A Report on the Supply of Black Economists

One of the primary concerns of the National Economic Association (NEA) is the position of black economists within the economics profession. This concern has two components. One component is the concern that black students are not being given equal access to opportunities to become professional economists; the second element is that black professional economists are not given equal access to opportunities within the profession. These issues provided the principal impetus to the formation of the Caucus of Black Economists and continue to be the main concerns of its successor, the National Economic Association. At the 1978 annual meeting of the association, the membership instructed the board of directors to make efforts to ascertain the progress being made toward expanding the supply of black economists. While there was some feeling that the rate of increase in the supply of black economists had not been spectacular, the available numbers had never been compiled. The three questions that were of paramount concern were: 1. What is the total number of black economists currently in the profession?

Presentation of the National Economic Association's 1979 Samuel Z. Westerfield Award to Marcus Alexis

Presentation of the National Economic Association's 1979 Samuel Z. Westerfield Award to Marcus Alexis