In-group research interests and their returns on career outcomes for PhDs

• In Event: 1404 - Affirmative Action and Anti-Discrimination Policy

Abstract

As diverse individuals enter academe they will likely study their own groups and diversify the topics science addresses. But does such study enable these underrepresented groups to acquire faculty jobs, or do they place them in competition with one another for the same positions? To answer this, we use a database of 1.2M doctoral students from the United States and follow them from 1980-2015. We study whether PhDs from minority groups (race/ethnicity/gender) are more likely to study their own identity in their dissertations than are majority groups. In addition, we examine whether minority groups studying their own identities have an advantage or disadvantage in early career outcomes. By analyzing these patterns across disciplines, we ascertain whether different relations between minority groups and research topics vary by field. We find there is a strong positive relationship between race/ethnicity/gender and the choice of research topics in race/ethnicity/gender across fields. However, there is no positive career returns for minorities who study their own identity. Only Asians studying Asian topics have lower probabilities of acquiring a faculty job, and this attenuates over time.

Authors

• Lanu Kim, Stanford University

• Bas Hofstra, Stanford University

• Daniel A. McFarland, Stanford University