Bridging barriers: How COVID-19 changed racial diversity in economics seminars

In this paper, new facts are documented on the racial distribution of seminar speakers in economics. From a sample of 270 institutions, I determined that before the COVID-19 pandemic, 82.5% of seminars were given by White speakers, 13.9% of seminars were given by Asian speakers, and 3.6% by speakers with a Hispanic-Latino or Black background. The racial distribution of speakers did not change globally. However, the share of speakers from underrepresented minorities in the United States almost doubled with the introduction of virtual seminars during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Virtual seminars during COVID-19 affected the racial diversity of economics seminar speakers. • Globally, the racial composition of seminar speakers remained largely unchanged. • In the U.S., the share of seminar speakers from underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds nearly doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic.