Wouldn’t it be nice, as a Black economist, to have a model of the US Black economy? We could model many of the larger questions in Black economics.
We could plug in important topics like AI, tariffs, tax legislation, or government subsidies and come out with the estimated impact on jobs, unemployment, healthcare, and income. It would be a policy bonanza for Black policy makers, black legislators, and the public.
Instead of guessing, we could have an idea of the real impact on Black communities and African-American workers.
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The researcher must be familiar with the following:
CBO Model
Federal Reserve Model
Leontief input-output model (Wikipedia)
What would the model look like?
To start, the model does not have to be sophisticated. The model could start with job sector employment for the top 20 Black employment categories and then project incomes over time without change: 3% inflation, 3% GDP growth.
Then we would add in simple exogenous variables like higher minimum wage, increased employment levels and taxes. And check for robustness and quality.
We might also look a sector impacts like Black physician and Black nurse income. The model should work at the macro and sector level.
Finally, we would look to answer some of the fundamental questions of black economics. Topics might include Black spending, Black business formation, and education And if you want a PhD, try historic discrimination. Ha, ha, ha. Who says economist don’t have a sense of humor.