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Bias In The Ivory Tower?

Gregory Mankiw, a onetime economic adviser to our current president and professor at Harvard, brings up an interesting question in his blog today: why are there so few conservatives in the top tiers of academia?Does this reflect an unfair bias against a certain ideology? A hypocritical stance on diversity?Larry..




Gregory Mankiw, a onetime economic adviser to our current president and professor at Harvard, brings up an interesting question in his blog today: why are there so few conservatives in the top tiers of academia?

Does this reflect an unfair bias against a certain ideology? A hypocritical stance on diversity?

Larry Summers uses a baseball analogy:
"Summers wondered if the situation isn't like it was in the early days of baseball's racial integration, when people trying to say equality had arrived could point to the relatively equal performance of black and white stars. 'But it appeared that there were not any African-American.250 hitters,' Summers said. 'The only [black] players who played were stars.'"

The obvious counterargument, which Mankiw ignores, would be to say liberals are naturally more disposed to become professors (or professors are naturally more disposed to become liberals).

This really technical paper suggests just that.

Even if that is the case though, we might want something like affirmative action for conservatives in academia just to maintain a balance.

What do you think? Too many liberals in academia? At your alma mater?














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