Resources and Articles

UWE Challenge in the news

UWE Conference on April 8-9 at the University of Virginia
Women in Economics empowering students to achieve potential
 (UW Madison)

Online resources

"A career in Economics... it's much more than you think" is a video produced in 2015 by the American Economic Association with the aim of showing that Economics can be applied in many more fields than just banking and consulting. Educators are encouraged to show this video to their high school and college students to start the conversation about the many diverse areas which employ the tools of economics.

DIV E.Q. is an online resource promoting inclusive, innovative, and evidence-based teaching practices in economics. Created by Amanda Bayer of Swarthmore College and sponsored by the AEA's Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession, Div.E.Q. outlines best teaching practices, identifies recommendations with empirical support, and suggests areas for future research.

Implicit Association Tests that measure attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. 

Omicron Delta Epsilon is one of the world's largest academic honors societies aimed at recognizing scholastic attainment and honoring outstanding achievements in economics. Some of its other objectives also include the establishment of closer ties between students and faculty in economics within colleges and universities, and among colleges and universities. Omicron Delta Epsilon has 681 chapters over the world.

Starting Point introduces economists to innovative teaching strategies developed both within and beyond the discipline of economics. It provides instructors with the tools to begin integrating and assessing these teaching strategies in their own classrooms and promotes the sharing of teaching innovations among instructors.

The Committee on Economic Education is a standing committee of the AEA who mission is to improve the quality of economics education at all levels: pre-college, college, adult, and general education. The Committee sponsors regular paper sessions and workshops, and has cooperated with the Journal of Economic Education and the National Council on Economic Education to establish an electronic journal for working papers in economic education. The Economics Research Network (ERN) Educator is part of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).

Papers and articles

"Are science lecture classes sexist?" (Barshay 2016) University of Michigan study shows that women suffer a higher grade penalty than men in intro science courses where a student's grade depends primarily on one or two midterms and a final, but tend to do slightly better in labs. The study author suggests that the effect may be due to "stereotype threat" and that changing course evaluation to more frequent lower stakes testing may increase women's grades.

The Undergraduate Origins of Ph.D. Economists: The Berkeley Experience. (Olney 2015) Through interviews with Economics student services staff and undergraduates who plan to apply to Ph.D. programs, this study examines the factors that influence a student's decision to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics. Four explicit factors - math preparation, advanced track for theory courses, research opportunities, and availability of information - and a fifth implicit factor - peer effects - were cited throughout conversation.

How to Attract Female Engineers. (Nilsson 2015) A NY Times article on the impact that structuring engineering programs around social mission and civic engagement has on recruiting more women into the field.

Beliefs about innate talent may dissuade students from STEM. (Miller 2015) Teaching a "growth mindset" and emphasizing the importance of hard work over innate "genius" in high school has important implications for the likelihood of both male and female students majoring in math-intensive fields in college.

The Effects of an Anti-Grade-Inflation Policy at Wellesley College. (Butcher, McEwan and Weerapana 2014) The paper, using diff-in-diff methodology, looks at the impact of an anti-grade-inflation policy instituted at Wellesley in the Fall 2004. The policy, primarily affecting the humanities and social science majors, had an immediate effect by decreasing the average grade in the treated departments, lowering professors' ratings on student evaluations, and decreasing the number of students enrolled in their courses and the number of majors in these departments.

How One College Is Closing the Computer Science Gender Gap. (Kaufman 2013) Maria Klawe's work as President of Harvey Mudd College and her efforts and successes in recruiting more women into computer sciences. Her strategies to getting women to enter and then stay in the major include structuring introductory sections around students' experience, designing course content to include relatable topics, and taking first-year female students to attend a conference for women in computing.

Women in Computing - Take 2. (Klawe, Whitney and Simard 2009) A look at the changes that have occurred to women in computer sciences in the 14 years since the authors' original piece, published in 1995. The article outlines strategies for recruiting, retaining, and helping women advance in the field, breaking down the interventions into those targeting girls and women in K-12, academia, and industry. The general principles can be applied to recruiting and retaining women in other STEM fields as well.