Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Dismal Science on Affirmative Action

The parent organization for all nerdy economists found some doo doo on its shoes in a recent scandal about online advertisements for jobs openings for economists ("JOE" believe it or not).

When professors at the University of Vermont sent information about a job opening to the American Economic Association this fall about a tenure-track opening, they didn’t think their notice was unusual. After describing the position, the notice said that the university “welcomes applications from women and underrepresented ethnic, racial and cultural groups and from people with disabilities.”

Those words never made it into the economics group’s job notice list because they were deemed discriminatory by the association.


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Our ad included a little blurb that apparently passed through the AEA's wary eye: The [mid-sized state university where I am tenured] is engaged in an effort to be a leader in [the state]'s movement toward increased diversity and inclusiveness. We are committed to developing our faculty to better reflect the diversity of American society. An equal opportunity-affirmative action employer.

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