Relevance, belonging, and growth mindsets in economics: Differences across identities and institution types

The underrepresentation of students who identify as racial/ethnic minorities and/or women in economics exceeds that in STEM fields. Economics has made little progress in increasing inclusion over time. Past research has established that such students have significantly lower relevance, belonging, and growth mindset (RBG) in predominantly white institutions and co-ed settings. There has been no research to date on RBG at minority serving institutions (MSIs) or women’s colleges, nor on whether these identity-focused institutions may foster RBG. This paper uses a longitudinal survey to investigate RBG across institutional settings, examining the association of MSIs and women’s colleges with RBG for minority and women students. We find that, at baseline, minority students had significantly lower RBG than white students overall as well as significantly lower scores on each dimension of RBG. Female students did not have a significant difference in overall RBG compared to male/non-binary students, but did have significantly higher relevance. This difference was driven by female students at women’s colleges, which we over-sampled, who had significantly higher relevance than did female students at co-ed colleges. However, being at a women’s college or a MSI was not significantly associated with change in RBG. These results illustrate complex patterns and dynamics of RBG when considering a wider set of institutions than in previous research.