The Accidental Economist: Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University – IMF F&D
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: HYUN-SUNG KHANG
- Published: December 1, 2020
Profile summary
- Author: HYUN-SUNG KHANG
- Publication: F&D Magazine
- Date: December 2020
- Read time indicator on page: Less than a minute(0 words) Read
- Overview: Michigan State University economist Lisa D. Cook studies how racism and sexism hinder economic performance, with research spanning innovation, economic history, development, and financial institutions.
Personal background and formative experiences
- Early life:
- Grew up in Milledgeville, Georgia, in a middle-class family.
- Experienced a childhood physical attack involving a racial epithet that left a scar above her right eye.
- Family background includes a father, Payton B. Cook, the first Black chaplain at the state’s central hospital, and a mother, Mary Murray Cook, the first African American professor at Milledgeville’s Georgia College.
- Organized protests at Spelman College (divestment from South Africa, curfew objections, dietary options).
- Education:
- Bachelor’s degree from Spelman College.
- Second bachelor’s as a Marshall Scholar from Oxford University.
- Coursework toward a master’s in philosophy from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal.
- PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
- Notable life events:
- Came to economics after a conversation on Mount Kilimanjaro during studies in Senegal (five-hour hike).
- Suffered a severe car crash en route to Berkeley, temporarily in a wheelchair with multiple fractures in her legs.
- Dissertation on property rights in czarist and post-Soviet Russia; thesis supervisor Barry Eichengreen.
Research findings and substantive contributions
- Focus areas: intersection of the African-American lived experience and macroeconomics; development; financial institutions and markets; economic history; innovation.
- Key findings on violence and innovation:
- Investigated how segregation, lynchings, and race riots during 1870–1940 reduced total patent filings.
- Until 1900, patent filings by Black inventors moved in the same direction as those of White innovators; thereafter rates diverged and slowed overall.
- Patent filings by Black inventors topped out in 1899 and didn’t exceed that year’s level until 2010.
- Estimates that in the absence of that violence, there might have been 1,100 more patents—roughly the number that might be filed in a medium-sized European country in the same time period.
- Conclusion: “Conflict can have lasting and persistent effects on economic activity.”
- Economic losses from exclusion:
- Estimates the United States forgoes as much as 4.4 percent of GDP per capita each year by excluding Black and female Americans from industries that drive technological innovation.
- The loss from excluding women alone is 2.7 percent.
- Aggregate estimate: exclusion wipes out almost $1 trillion a year from the US economy.
- Other topics: effects of distinctively Black names on longevity; the long-term economic impact of excluding African Americans and women from the innovation process.
Professional challenges and reception
- Encountered skepticism and discouragement:
- Senior economists warned research on race could derail tenure prospects.
- Journals and peers argued findings were too specific to African Americans at a point in history and lacked broader relevance.
- Faced direct questions such as “Why are you looking at African Americans?” revealing a discipline-wide blind spot.
- Institutional roles and recognition:
- Elected to the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association in 2019.
- Supported early by figures including Donald J. Harris; received encouragement and mentorship from some senior economists despite broader discouragement.
Diversity, mentorship, and policy implications
- On the economics profession:
- Cited the AEA survey of over 9,000 members: 62 percent of Black women economists reported experiencing racial discrimination, gender discrimination, or both.
- In the survey, only 3 percent identified as Black, compared with 13 percent of the US population.
- 47 percent of Black respondents reported experiencing discrimination in economics.
- Fewer than half of respondents, regardless of race, said they thought non-White economists were respected.
- Mentoring and pipeline work:
- Director of the American Economic Association’s summer program, recruiting members of underrepresented groups and acting as mentor.
- Mentored recruits including 24-year-old Ghanaian-born American Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman.
- Policy and normative implications:
- Excluding sizable segments of the population from idea-generation and innovation imposes large economic costs on society, including on those who benefit from current privileges.
- Integrating diversity of thought and lived experience into economics and other fields is necessary to maximize societal welfare and maintain a competitive, knowledge-creating profession.
Notable anecdotes and illustrative examples
- Uses historical and cultural references to illustrate points:
- Cites the scene from the film Hidden Figures where astronaut John Glenn asks “get the girl to check the numbers,” highlighting reliance on a Black woman mathematician for mission-critical validation.
- Personal anecdote of a serendipitous conversation on Kilimanjaro that led her to economics.
Key statistics and estimates (verbatim from source)
- Time period studied for violence and patent impacts: 1870–1940
- Patent milestone years: 1900; 1899; 2010
- Estimated additional patents without racial violence: 1,100
- Length of Kilimanjaro hike encounter: five-hour hike
- Elected to AEA Executive Committee: 2019
- AEA survey sample size: over 9,000
- Share of Black women reporting discrimination in survey: 62 percent
- Share identifying as Black in the survey: 3 percent
- Share of US population identified as Black (comparison): 13 percent
- Share of survey respondents reporting discrimination (Black respondents): 47 percent
- Age of a mentee mentioned: 24-year-old
- Annual economic loss from exclusion: almost $1 trillion a year
- Estimated annual forgone GDP per capita: 4.4 percent of GDP per capita each year
- Estimated loss from excluding women alone: 2.7 percent
HYUN-SUNG KHANG; F&D Magazine, December 2020.
Content in this bundle
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- Perfil de la economista Lisa Cook, Michigan State University
- Économiste par le fruit du hasard
- The Accidental Economist: Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University – IMF F&D
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