Prof Maitreesh Ghatak SAL.3.08A

Prof Maitreesh Ghatak (SAL.3.08A) and Dr Christiane Szerman (TBC)

This course is available on the BSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, BSc in Economics, BSc in Economics and Economic History, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development with Economics, BSc in Environmental Policy with Economics, BSc in Geography with Economics, BSc in International Social and Public Policy and Economics, BSc in Mathematics and Economics, BSc in Mathematics with Economics, BSc in Philosophy and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with a Year Abroad) and BSc in Politics and Economics. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course is suitable for students on Economics joint degree and other programmes, who have followed the quantitative stream of the new economics curriculum.

This course combines theory and empirics so requires a good understanding of microeconomic theory and econometrics. Students must have Microeconomics II (EC2A1) or Microeconomics II (EC2A3), or equivalent. Also, students must have completed Econometrics II (EC2C1) or Econometrics I (EC2C3) typically (but not necessarily) in combination with Econometrics II (EC2C4), or equivalent. This course can be taken after EC2C3 within the same academic year.

This course will cover the economics of discrimination guided by economic theory and evidence. In the first part of the course, we look at some broad stylized facts relating to discrimination in the labour market (both racial and gender) and then explore some of the leading economic theories of the causes and consequences of discrimination, why it tends to persist despite the economic inefficiencies involved, the role for corrective policies, and to the extent the negative effects of discrimination are transmitted inter-generationally. The second part of the course includes the empirical measurement of discrimination, an overview of the economic consequences of racial and gender discrimination, which policies have been implemented to promote equality for underrepresented groups, and examines the relationship between economic inequality and intergenerational mobility. The second part also covers econometric methods used in the literature on the economics of discrimination. Themes and, in some cases, papers overlap in the two parts. However, they are designed to be complementary, with the first part posing stylized facts and questions, and trying to interpret these using some simple theoretical models, and the second part examining the empirical implications of the theory and focusing on issues of measurement and causal identification.

15 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the WT. 1 hour of classes in the ST.

There will be a reading week in Week 6 of WT (no lectures or classes that week).



This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 25 hours across Winter term and Summer Term.

There will be a combination of problem sets and short written reports, which will be discussed in classes. The problem sets cover both theoretical and empirical topics covered in the lectures. Each written report summarizes a paper discussed in class and provides two major comments on the assigned paper. Examples of comments can be suggestions for future research, questions relevant to the paper that it does not address, major concerns related to the analysis and suggestions for investigating them, and alternative interpretations of the evidence that the authors did not consider. The goal of these written reports is to encourage students to think actively and critically about the topics discussed and to serve as preparation for the summative essay.

Reading for the course will consist of academic papers, newspaper or online articles, and podcasts. Papers marked with one star (*) on the reading list are required reading for the lecture or class. As an example of the level and content of the reading in economics articles, students may wish to look at the following:



• Lang, Kevin and Jee-Yeon K. Lehmann (2012); “Racial Discrimination in the Labor Market: Theory and Empirics”, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 959-1006.



• Doepke, Matthias and Fabian Kindermann (2019): “Bargaining over Babies: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications”, American Economic Review 2019, 109(9): 3264–3306.



• Goldin, Claudia. "The Quiet Revolution that Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family." American Economic Review 96, no. 2 (2006): 1-21.



• Anjali Adukia, Alex Eble, Emileigh Harrison, Hakizumwami Birali Runesha, Teodora Szasz, What We Teach About Race and Gender: Representation in Images and Text of Children’s Books, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 138, no. 4 (2023): 2225–2285.



• Black, Sandra E., and Paul J. Devereux. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility." Handbook of Labor Economics 4 (2011): 1487-1541.

Essay (100%, 5000 words).

Essay (100%, 5,000 words) in the Spring Term.



The essay takes up a specific question related to the topics covered in the course and provides a critical assessment of the literature, both policy and academic, discussing both what we know, and the gaps in our knowledge or understanding of the processes and mechanisms at work.