THE ECONOMICS MENTORING PROGRAM (FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE PIPELINE PROJECT)

The Economics Pipeline Program is an initiative of the Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession (CSMGEP)of the American Economic Association (AEA). The goal is to expand the pool of minority Ph.D. economists using a series of interventions targeted at critical stages in their training and professional development. The initiative includes three interrelated programs: a Summer Program, a Mentoring Program, and a Summer Fellows Program. This proposal seeks funding for the Mentoring Program. The total number of doctorates in economics earned annually has declined from 447 in 1993 to 381 in 2002. Over this period of time, the number of minorities1 who earned economics doctorates each year fell, from 34 in 1993 to 27 in 2002. As a result, after peaking at 9.1%, the share of economic doctoral degrees awarded to minorities annually returned to values similar to the early 1990s, approximately 7.0%. The number of minority scholars in the economics profession continues to be extremely small. In an effort to increase minority representation, the AEA developed a Pipeline Program which is composed of three parts. Since 1974, the CSMGEP has overseen the first component of the Pipeline Program, a Summer Program to prepare talented minority students for doctoral programs in economics. The Mentoring Program (formerly known as the Pipeline Project) is a relatively new component, designed to build on the Summer Program for minority students interested in pursuing economics Ph.D.s. The third component is a new Summer Internship Program. These three programs help students navigate critical stages in their professional development, including: establishing an interest in economics, preparing for graduate school, completing core theory and field exams, initiating dissertation research, finding a job, and if they pursue an academic position, obtaining tenure. Broader Impacts: Through the Mentoring Program, participating students are linked to professional economists with whom they maintain contact throughout graduate school and their careers. Currently, 22 graduate students are active members, with 3 to 5 going on the job market this fall. A critical component of the program is an annual two-day research conference. Students, their mentors, and a selected group of economists participate in formal and informal sessions on research, graduate school and the early years of the professional career. At the last three conferences, 28 research papers were presented. Several have been thesis chapters and are now starting to be published. To date, 8 participants have become assistant professors and 2 have taken nonacademic jobs. Because of this success, the last two conferences included sessions on the early years of a tenure track position and publishing. One of the proposed changes to the Conference is to restructure the agenda to work collaboratively with Professors William Darity and Rhonda Sharpe who are proposing an intensive mentoring program focused on the craft of research and writing. The conference is scheduled such that paper presentations would occur on the first day and the second day would be devoted to workshops on professional development: choosing and thriving in graduate school, finding a job, securing tenure, and other such topics. The components of the Pipeline Program have become increasingly integrated and mutually supportive. The conference for the Mentoring Program is held at the site of the Summer Program, enabling the younger students to participate in paper and panel discussions. The funds made available through this grant (to be administered by Professor William M. Rodgers III, current Mentoring Program director) will be used to strengthen the already successful conference as well as our junior faculty mentoring component. Funds will be used to support the research of Mentoring Program participants and to compensate a student assistant whose duties will include identifying new students and mentors, updating current participant experiences, and assisting in the evaluation of the program. The latter will allow the investigator to track participants.