Doctoral degrees awarded to Blacks in agricultural economics: 1999–2019

Abstract

This paper looks at 21 years of data on doctoral degrees granted across the US and compares agricultural economics to economics and other fields. While the percentage of doctoral degrees awarded to Blacks is generally higher than that in economics, both the percent and the number of Blacks completing their degrees have decreased slightly over time in agricultural economics. The number and percent of doctoral degrees across all fields awarded to Black students increased over the same period. The paper also reviews studies related to diversity in the economics and agricultural economics professions and discusses possible reasons for the disparities.

An overview of the history, role, and struggles of agricultural economics and business programs at 1890 Land‐Grant Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)

“…Gender discrepancies make these figures even more disquieting. According to Moser (2022), between 2015 and 2019, a closer gender parity existed in terms of awarded Ph.D. degrees across disciplines, excluding agricultural economics, where the male-female ratio was 2.23:1.…”

“…In academia, Blacks in AEB have been underrepresented in many fields of study (Robbins & Evans, 1983; Jones et al, 1983; Ihnen, 1983; Davis & Allen, 1983). Moser (2022) found that, over the last 20 years, Blacks in AEB represent only 4.8% of the total awarded doctoral degrees. While this number is higher than the percentage of doctoral degrees awarded to Blacks in economics (3.3%), there has been a slight declining trend in the percentage of agricultural economics in recent years.…”

“…Despite the pivotal role of agricultural sciences in the Land‐Grant mission of 1890 HBCUs, the College of Agriculture within these institutions has historically been their smallest academic unit with the lowest enrollment. This trend is especially pronounced in the field of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness (AEB)—the primary focus of this article—which has experienced declining student enrollment among all 1890 HBCUs (Moser, 2022).…”

The contribution of the Online Agricultural and Resource Economics Seminar to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in agricultural and applied economics

“…The motivating facts we discuss here draw from the efforts of many researchers who have carefully documented—often at a high opportunity cost to themselves in terms of their usual scholarship—disparities by gender, race, or both across a number of areas including promotion and tenure, publishing, and academic presentations. This includes the work of Wu (2020) documenting misogynistic and hostile language on an anonymous online economics discussion board, a 2019 Journal of Economic Perspectives symposium on women in economics (Boustan & Langan, 2019; Buckles, 2019; Lundberg & Stearns, 2019), the work of Doleac et al (2021) documenting who gets invited to academic seminars in the economics profession, findings from a pair of surveys conducted in 2019 focusing on agricultural and applied economics (Hilsenroth et al, 2022), and the work of Moser (2021) on Blacks in agricultural and applied economics. We list four motivating facts below, but encourage all readers to spend time reading and reflecting on each of the studies cited in this section.…”

“…1 In agricultural and applied economics departments, women and underrepresented minorities make up just one out of every four full professors in majority research appointments (Hilsenroth et al, 2022). Moreover, although the percentage of doctorates awarded to Blacks is higher in agricultural and applied economics than in economics, that percentage has declined over the last few decades (Moser, 2021), at a time when the percentage of doctorates awarded to Blacks was increasing on average in disciplines other than economics.…”