Attracting 'Otherwise Bright' Women to Economics: An Administrative Strategy for Small to Medium Size Economics Departments

Abstract

This paper reports on the impact of a departmental policy that allows high achieving students in the introductory economics survey course for non-majors to waive the macroeconomic principles requirement for an economics degree. A detailed analysis of 602 student transcripts over a period of 33 years suggests that the waiver policy has not disadvantaged students in subsequent upper-level economics courses. The policy has benefited the department by attracting high achieving students, particularly women, who otherwise may not have been attracted to the discipline. This purely administrative approach to attract more students to the discipline is relatively low cost and has the added benefit of addressing the unfortunate trend of economics graduates to under-represent the share of women among all students receiving bachelor's degrees.

JEL Classification: A20, A22