Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Hiring and Jewish Economists

By my Duke Econ colleague Roy Weintraub...

MIT’s Openness to Jewish Economists 

Roy Weintraub 
Duke University Working Paper, June 2013 

Abstract: MIT emerged from “nowhere” in the 1930s to its place as one of the three or four most important sites for economic research by the mid-1950s. A conference held at Duke University in April 2013 examined how this occurred. In this paper the author argues that the immediate postwar period saw a collapse – in some places slower, in some places faster – of the barriers to the hiring of Jewish faculty in American colleges and universities. And more than any other elite private or public university, particularly Ivy League universities, MIT welcomed Jewish economists.

Nod to Kevin Lewis

2 comments:

Brad Evans said...

Gordon Allport, in his book on Prejudice, described a 1948 experiment by SL Wax documenting prejudice, among hotel owners at least, in the Toronto area. I think it is pages 4-5 in the Allport book (Google Books).

Jack PQ said...

Support for Gary Becker's theory of discrimination in the marketplace (even though higher ed is not really ''a marketplace'' much less free).

Unis that discriminate pay for it, while those that don't discriminate pick up a free lunch