Measuring Impact of an Economics Discovery Program

Economics lags other disciplines in inclusivity both as a field of study and career track. Women account for 28 percent of the nation’s economics majors, and around 15 percent of economics majors are Black, Hispanic, or Native American. Although programs to increase representation in the field have become increasingly common, there is virtually no rigorous evidence of their effectiveness. The E&E Lab has designed the first longitudinal randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the causal impact of a University of Chicago summer program that aims to attract underrepresented undergraduate students to economics.

In 2021, UChicago launched the EDE program (Expanding Discovery in Economics), a first-of-its-kind program that brings together early undergraduate students from colleges across the country to Chicago to hone their research abilities and technical skills in economics and related fields. The E&E Lab is conducting a randomized control trial to estimate the impact of this program on student outcomes including choice of major, graduate study, and career trajectory.