MCA-ECON: The Impacts of Supply and Demand on Ideas, Innovation, and Diversity in Economics

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。研究人员在产生新想法方面发挥着关键作用，但人们对研究人员的组成如何影响研究产出知之甚少。该项目将直接和明确地解决这一问题，将思想的演变与历史上代表性不足的少数群体(URM)和经济学中的妇女的代表性的人口变化联系起来。因此，它与扩大参与的努力密切相关，以便在全国的大学、学院和专业组织中更多地纳入历史上被边缘化的群体。该项目将连接经济学中按年份和领域划分的博士经济学家供求的最全面的数据集。这一史无前例的报道将使研究人员能够追踪经济学中思想和创新的演变，以及劳动力供求因素在这一过程中所起的作用。对这些数据的仔细研究将有助于更好地理解研究人员的人口构成与想法之间的关系，重点是估计日益多样化对研究创新和想法的深度和广度的影响。该项目还将从妇女和URM群体在各个领域的代表性随时间的变化中获得洞察力，为更广泛地增加该专业的多样性提供可行的证据。最后，这个职业中期推进(MCA)项目将支持将PI的专业领域转移到创新领域，同时开辟新的途径来调查多样性和创新之间的联系。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Researchers play a critical role in the production of new ideas, yet relatively little is known about how the composition of researchers affects research output. This project will address this question directly and explicitly tie the evolution of ideas to demographic shifts in the representation of historically underrepresented minority (URM) groups and women in economics. As such, it connects closely with efforts to broaden participation toward greater inclusion of historically marginalized groups at universities, colleges, and professional organizations across the nation.This project will link the most comprehensive data sets on the supply of, and demand for, Ph.D. economists by year and field within economics. This unprecedented coverage will enable researchers to track the evolution of ideas and innovation in economics and the role that labor supply and demand factors have played in that process. Close examination of these data will lead to a better understanding of the relationship between the demographic composition of researchers and ideas, with a focus on estimating the impact of increasing diversity on the depth and breadth of research innovation and ideas. This project will also yield insights from the variation in the representation of women and URM groups across fields over time to provide actionable evidence on increasing diversity more broadly in the profession. Finally, this Mid-Career Advancement (MCA) project will support moving the PI’s area of expertise into the field of innovation while opening new avenues of inquiry into the link between diversity and innovation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.