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.

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2 May 2025

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Economics Letters 2522025

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DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112345

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517652500182X

This Journal article is published under the centre's Trade programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Inequality: Winners and losers