William A. Darity, Jr., Distinguished Fellow 2024
William A. (“Sandy”) Darity, Jr. is a distinguished economist whose groundbreaking research has significantly advanced our understanding of racial inequality, labor economics, and wealth disparities. Darity holds the position of Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics, and serves as the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. He has chaired the Department of African and African American Studies and played a pivotal role as the founding director of the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality at Duke. Prior to his tenure at Duke, he held various significant roles including directorship of the Institute of African American Research, the Moore Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program, the Undergraduate Honors Program in economics, and Graduate Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In 2012, Darity was honored with the Samuel Z. Westerfield Award, the most prestigious recognition bestowed by the National Economic Association. His achievements were further acknowledged with a Politico 50 recognition in 2017 and an award from Global Policy Solutions in the same year. Serving as a past president of both the National Economic Association and the Southern Economic Association reflects his leadership and influence within the academic community.
Darity is a founder of the field of stratification economics, which starts from the premise that unequal outcomes between social groups are not due to the lower ranked group’s cultural deficits, but rather due to inequities in the distribution of resources and power. Therefore, the solutions to intergroup inequality are found not in changing the behaviors of the lower ranked group nor in changing the attitudes of the higher ranked group, but will only be possible through structural changes to the economic system of the society.
Darity's research interests encompass various dimensions of inequality, including race, class, and ethnicity. He investigates topics such as the racial achievement gap in schooling, theories of trade and development between regions, the impact of skin shade on labor market outcomes, and the economics of reparations. Additionally, his work delves into the Atlantic slave trade's influence on the Industrial Revolution, the history of economics, and the social-psychological effects of unemployment exposure.
As only a few examples, Darity has contributed to an important literature on the economics of skin color, understood independently of race. Using unique data in the NLSY, as well as a variety of Latin American datasets, Darity has examined how dark skin colors are penalized, even within race, and even within societies in Latin America with much less defined racial boundaries than the US. He has also examined the racial wage gap, challenging the notion that skill differences alone can explain the disparities observed. Through comprehensive evidence, including historical analysis of help-wanted ads, Darity demonstrates the pervasiveness of discrimination and the limited effectiveness of non-legislative measures in reducing it, emphasizing the importance of legislative interventions like the Civil Rights Act.
Beyond his academic achievements, Darity's impact on public policy is reflected in two policy proposals that have gotten significant traction with policymakers and advocates. With Darrick Hamilton, Darity's innovative proposal of "baby bonds" is discussed in "Bold Policies for Economic Justice" (Darity & Hamilton, 2012). Here, Darity & Hamilton argue for the establishment of universal wealth transfers, e.g. a trust account given to all citizens at birth, redeemable at the age of majority, providing a detailed analysis of how such a policy could be implemented to promote economic equity.
Darity is also a leader in contemporary debates on reparations, which have been the subject of a great deal of public attention. In his work with Kirsten Mullen, "From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century" (Darity & Mullen, 2020), he details both the historical background and comparative cases of reparations and makes a compelling argument for reparations, grounding its case in a detailed account of the economic injustices faced by black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States from the era of slavery to the present day.
Finally, Darity has had a lasting impact on the lives of young scholars through his Diversity Initiative for Tenure Economics (DITE). DITE supports economists from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in their journey from junior faculty to associate professor through mentorship and workshops.
Through his research, mentorship, and public advocacy, William "Sandy" Darity, Jr. continues to be a leading voice in the pursuit of economic justice and equality.