Events

150 Years of Racial Inequality in the US: from emancipation through today

Hosted by the Department of Economic History

Online public event, United Kingdom

Speaker

Dr Marianne Wanamaker

Dr Marianne Wanamaker

Associate Professor of Economics, University of Tennessee

Chair

Professor Joan Roses

Professor Joan Roses

Professor of Economic History, LSE

Join us for this year's Epstein Lecture.

The post-Civil War South was replete with limits on black economic mobility, and understanding our current inequality struggles requires understanding the origin of these differences in the Reconstruction South. Dr. Wanamaker’s presentation will document the patterns of racial inequality from 1865 through today. Throughout this history, how did black sons fare in the labor market, compared to the sons of observationally equivalent white fathers?  What periods in American history were more and less conducive to black mobility? Could a different Reconstruction strategy have put the United States on an entirely different racial inequality trajectory?

Dr Marianne Wanamaker is an associate professor of economics at the University of Tennessee and the former chief domestic economist and senior labor economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisors. She serves as co-editor in chief at Explorations in Economic History and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA, at IZA, and at Stellenbosch University. Her research centers on the economic history of minority groups in the U.S. labor market, especially the experience of Black men.

Professor Joan R. Rosés is Head of the Department of Economic History at LSE. His research interests compriss Historical Economic Geography, European economic history (19th and 20th centuries), long term economic growth and productivity, and labour markets.

You can view a recording of the Epstein Lecture on Youtube here: Epstein Lecture 2021

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