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Members and affiliates of NBER and BREAD:
Perhaps you don’t realize how much power you have to influence young researchers’ careers. The advice & mentoring you provide, the doors you open, the recommendations you make, the little praise you give – all go a long way 1/ Thread
Perhaps you don’t realize how much power you have to influence young researchers’ careers. The advice & mentoring you provide, the doors you open, the recommendations you make, the little praise you give – all go a long way 1/ Thread
So, why not use all the power and influence to affect much needed change? Towards a more open and inclusive set of economics institutions. Towards a more diverse set of people and ideas. For equality of opportunity (that many of you advocate for outside your house) 2/
REIMAGINE NBER (and BREAD)
It really shouldn’t be our job, as outsiders to the clubs, to figure out how you should reshape these important and influential decisions. But, calls for change only cause defensiveness. None of us are perfect, and a lot of things in economics are embarrassing. 3/
So, perhaps a positive approach with some initial, and certainly far less radical than what might actually be needed, ideas may get you to move – at least start the conversation. I am sure the leading researchers in our field can devise even better ones. 4/
What follows are some simple ideas for NBER. But, a lot of it also goes for BREAD, which does not have the geographic (or academic inst.) constraint. J-PAL, please others also take note. A lot of you in DEV ECON are in all of these organizations. 5/
1. Increase membership. This is a no-brainer start. Here’s the list of NBER members in DevEcon: https://www.nber.org/programs/dev/dev-mem.html. No way to justify this list. Nothing against the people inside, but there are a ton of equally good people outside. 6/
2. Open membership. Allow self-nominations or nominations by outsiders. Set criteria. Have the entire membership vote. Make the results public. Take the time to explain the people who were unsuccessful what it might take to succeed next time. 7/
3. Broaden membership. What does teaching have to do with NBER? Why shouldn’t someone from the Minn. Fed or IFPRI or CGDev not be part of NBER if they are (or can be) productive researchers? 8/
4. Broaden geographic scope. Start by allowing researchers from Africa, who may not yet (or never) be in the US to join. You can consider the entire RoW, of course, but at least start there, where challenges are greatest and until there is enough of a mass to have their own NBER.
5. Co-author more with your research partners in the countries you work in. We can all do better here. It eats at me that only a handful of my papers have co-authors from LICs, but trying to do better. Then, nominate your co-authors to be included in these organizations. 10/
Many of you are long-time friends & colleagues. All of you are amazing researchers. People don’t have anything against those who are on the inside. It’s the frustration of young researchers, who have no way of getting in regardless of what they do that needs to be addressed. 11/
So, though I do not want to single anyone out, I am tagging some people, because change will require powerful insiders as allies. While we’re cleaning our house at the AEA, let’s also reimagine these institutions and make them more inclusive and transparent. 12/
Please see thread 
: @tedmiguel @seema_econ, @m_sendhil, @aikhwaja, @rodrikdani , @MartinRavallion , @jhaushofer , @paul_gertler , @bill_easterly , @daronacemoglu @lkatz42 @DupasPascaline, and others. FIN.
: @tedmiguel @seema_econ, @m_sendhil, @aikhwaja, @rodrikdani , @MartinRavallion , @jhaushofer , @paul_gertler , @bill_easterly , @daronacemoglu @lkatz42 @DupasPascaline, and others. FIN.
