{
  "title": "The Accidental Economist: Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University – IMF F&D",
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  "summary": "The IMF’s Hyun-Sung Khang profiles Michigan State University economist Lisa D. Cook, who shows how racism and sexism hurt us all.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Profile summary",
      "content": "- Author: HYUN-SUNG KHANG\n- Publication: F&D Magazine\n- Date: December 2020\n- Read time indicator on page: Less than a minute(0 words) Read\n- 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."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Personal background and formative experiences",
      "content": "- Early life:\n  - Grew up in Milledgeville, Georgia, in a middle-class family.\n  - Experienced a childhood physical attack involving a racial epithet that left a scar above her right eye.\n  - 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.\n  - Organized protests at Spelman College (divestment from South Africa, curfew objections, dietary options).\n- Education:\n  - Bachelor’s degree from Spelman College.\n  - Second bachelor’s as a Marshall Scholar from Oxford University.\n  - Coursework toward a master’s in philosophy from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal.\n  - PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.\n- Notable life events:\n  - Came to economics after a conversation on Mount Kilimanjaro during studies in Senegal (five-hour hike).\n  - Suffered a severe car crash en route to Berkeley, temporarily in a wheelchair with multiple fractures in her legs.\n  - Dissertation on property rights in czarist and post-Soviet Russia; thesis supervisor Barry Eichengreen."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Research findings and substantive contributions",
      "content": "- Focus areas: intersection of the African-American lived experience and macroeconomics; development; financial institutions and markets; economic history; innovation.\n- Key findings on violence and innovation:\n  - Investigated how segregation, lynchings, and race riots during 1870–1940 reduced total patent filings.\n  - Until 1900, patent filings by Black inventors moved in the same direction as those of White innovators; thereafter rates diverged and slowed overall.\n  - Patent filings by Black inventors topped out in 1899 and didn’t exceed that year’s level until 2010.\n  - 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.\n  - Conclusion: “Conflict can have lasting and persistent effects on economic activity.”\n- Economic losses from exclusion:\n  - 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.\n  - The loss from excluding women alone is 2.7 percent.\n  - Aggregate estimate: exclusion wipes out almost $1 trillion a year from the US economy.\n- Other topics: effects of distinctively Black names on longevity; the long-term economic impact of excluding African Americans and women from the innovation process."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Professional challenges and reception",
      "content": "- Encountered skepticism and discouragement:\n  - Senior economists warned research on race could derail tenure prospects.\n  - Journals and peers argued findings were too specific to African Americans at a point in history and lacked broader relevance.\n  - Faced direct questions such as “Why are you looking at African Americans?” revealing a discipline-wide blind spot.\n- Institutional roles and recognition:\n  - Elected to the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association in 2019.\n  - Supported early by figures including Donald J. Harris; received encouragement and mentorship from some senior economists despite broader discouragement."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Diversity, mentorship, and policy implications",
      "content": "- On the economics profession:\n  - Cited the AEA survey of over 9,000 members: 62 percent of Black women economists reported experiencing racial discrimination, gender discrimination, or both.\n  - In the survey, only 3 percent identified as Black, compared with 13 percent of the US population.\n  - 47 percent of Black respondents reported experiencing discrimination in economics.\n  - Fewer than half of respondents, regardless of race, said they thought non-White economists were respected.\n- Mentoring and pipeline work:\n  - Director of the American Economic Association’s summer program, recruiting members of underrepresented groups and acting as mentor.\n  - Mentored recruits including 24-year-old Ghanaian-born American Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman.\n- Policy and normative implications:\n  - 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.\n  - 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."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Notable anecdotes and illustrative examples",
      "content": "- Uses historical and cultural references to illustrate points:\n  - 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.\n  - Personal anecdote of a serendipitous conversation on Kilimanjaro that led her to economics."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key statistics and estimates (verbatim from source)",
      "content": "- Time period studied for violence and patent impacts: 1870–1940\n- Patent milestone years: 1900; 1899; 2010\n- Estimated additional patents without racial violence: 1,100\n- Length of Kilimanjaro hike encounter: five-hour hike\n- Elected to AEA Executive Committee: 2019\n- AEA survey sample size: over 9,000\n- Share of Black women reporting discrimination in survey: 62 percent\n- Share identifying as Black in the survey: 3 percent\n- Share of US population identified as Black (comparison): 13 percent\n- Share of survey respondents reporting discrimination (Black respondents): 47 percent\n- Age of a mentee mentioned: 24-year-old\n- Annual economic loss from exclusion: almost $1 trillion a year\n- Estimated annual forgone GDP per capita: 4.4 percent of GDP per capita each year\n- Estimated loss from excluding women alone: 2.7 percent\n\nHYUN-SUNG KHANG; F&D Magazine, December 2020.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- اقتصادية بمحض الصدفة\n  - اقتصادية بمحض الصدفة (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - اقتصادية بمحض الصدفة (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Perfil de la economista Lisa Cook, Michigan State University\n  - Perfil de la economista Lisa Cook, Michigan State University (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Perfil de la economista Lisa Cook, Michigan State University (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Économiste par le fruit du hasard\n  - Économiste par le fruit du hasard (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Économiste par le fruit du hasard (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- The Accidental Economist: Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University – IMF F&D\n  - The Accidental Economist: Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University – IMF F&D (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - The Accidental Economist: Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University – IMF F&D (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Люди в экономике. Экономист по воле случая – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2020 года\n  - Люди в экономике. Экономист по воле случая – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2020 года (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Люди в экономике. Экономист по воле случая – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2020 года (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/12/profile-of-economist-lisa-cook-michigan-state-university"
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    "Authors: HYUN-SUNG KHANG",
    "Published: December 1, 2020",
    "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.",
    "Early life:",
    "Education:",
    "Notable life events:",
    "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:",
    "Economic losses from exclusion:",
    "Other topics: effects of distinctively Black names on longevity; the long-term economic impact of excluding African Americans and women from the innovation process.",
    "Encountered skepticism and discouragement:",
    "Institutional roles and recognition:",
    "On the economics profession:",
    "Mentoring and pipeline work:",
    "Policy and normative implications:",
    "Uses historical and cultural references to illustrate points:",
    "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",
    "**اقتصادية بمحض الصدفة**",
    "**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**",
    "**Люди в экономике. Экономист по воле случая – Финансы и развитие – декабрь 2020 года**"
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