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Marlène Koffi
![Marlene](https://www.iea-world.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Marlene.png)
Marlène is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Toronto. Her research interests are in the Economics of Innovation and Science. She is also interested in applying deep learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques for Economics studies and public policies.
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Follow Marlène on
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Marlène is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Toronto. Her research interests are in the Economics of Innovation and Science. She is also interested in applying deep learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques for Economics studies and public policies.
In their own words…
IEA – Can you tell us a little bit about your life story, what got you interested in economics, and how you decided to pursue an academic career?
Marlène – I grew up and completed most of my schooling in Ivory Coast. I started university studies with preparatory classes in Mathematics and Physics. This is a two-year intensive program, equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree. Following this, I was admitted to the School of Statistics and Economics of Abidjan (ENSEA Cote d’Ivoire).
It was during my time at ENSEA that my interest in economics started to develop. I was particularly captivated by the “stories.” By stories, I refer to how through economic models, economists offered a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of various economic agents. This fascination led me to decide that after completing my master’s studies, I would pursue a career as an economist.
I became aware of the Ph.D. program in Economics offered by the University of Montreal. This program was highly suitable for students from French-speaking countries. Additionally, the university had experience evaluating grades from African schools. This was important because the grading system in our schools tended to be rigorous, requiring a contextual interpretation.
Fortunately, I was accepted into the Ph.D. program in Economics at the University of Montreal, marking the beginning of my “true” journey in economics.
IEA – In your recent work you study the gender gap in recognition of women’s innovative ideas in comparison to men, can you briefly summarize your findings? What made you interested in this topic?
Marlène – One of my primary research interests revolves around understanding gender disparities in science and innovation. Throughout my academic journey, I have been involved in scientific fields where women are underrepresented. Being part of this group, I feel challenged to address the difficulty they may encounter. Moreover, there are numerous instances in history where women have not received proper recognition for their scientific achievements, such as Eunice Newton Foote and Rosalind Franklin, to name a few.
However, two critical pieces of information were missing for effective policymaking: the overall prevalence of gender disparities and their current status. Therefore, in my recent works, I aim to shed light on the differences in how researchers acknowledge and value women’s contributions. To accomplish this, I construct a counterfactual set of potential citations and compare it to the authors’ actual citations. This allows me to evaluate who is more likely to be excluded when crediting past works. My findings indicate that women are more likely to be overlooked than men. A significant contributing factor to this omission is the history of publications. Women with fewer publications than men tend to be undervalued, resulting in the potential oversight or undervaluation of young female contributions compared to their male counterparts. I also observe differences in this omission across fields, with a more pronounced gap in sub-fields with relatively fewer women. Moreover, this omission tends to be gendered, as women are less likely to exclude other women.
IEA – In another recent paper you study diversity and inclusion in Economics. Can you summarize the main findings from this study?
Marlène – In addition to gender-related issues, I am also interested in exploring broader issues affecting different racial groups. For example, we examine racial differences in the selection processes of prestigious organizations in economics. Specifically, we document that it is possible to identify a group of “eligible” African economists who were not selected, and their inclusion would have made the selection process more racially equitable. In our ongoing work, we also analyze the general dynamics of citation patterns across races and investigate how an author’s position in the citation network influences these dynamics. Our findings suggest that, on average, teams with at least one non-white author experience a negative citation bias of approximately 15%.
IEA – Why is it important for economic research to be racially diverse and inclusive?
Marlène – One of the reasons why economic research needs to be racially diverse and inclusive is the themes and questions addressed. In the case of gender, for example, Koning, Samila, and Ferguson have shown that women invent for women. In race, Advani, Elliott Ash, David Cai, and Imran Rasul find that the causes and consequences of racial inequality are under-researched in economics. Including diverse researchers might help combat implicit biases that can influence research questions, methodologies, and interpretations of findings.
Furthermore, Porteous’s work reveals that research in Africa, for instance, tends to be concentrated on a limited number of countries. It raises concerns about the relevance and effectiveness of policies in countries that have not been extensively studied. Diverse research perspectives can contribute to a broader range of studied subjects. Further, diverse viewpoints have the potential to challenge conventional wisdom and can ultimately lead to the development of more inclusive economic theories, and methodologies.
Lastly, diversity in economic research is also important for matters of fairness. Economists often study issues of fairness and inequality in society. The theories we develop and apply to other fields must also be applied within our own discipline.
References:
Advani, A., Ash, E., Cai, D., & Rasul, I. (2021). Race-related research in economics and other social sciences.
Koning, R., Samila, S., & Ferguson, J. P. (2021). Who do we invent for? Patents by women focus more on women’s health, but few women get to invent. Science, 372(6548), 1345-1348.
Porteous, O. (2022). Research deserts and oases: Evidence from 27 thousand economics journal articles on africa. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 84(6), 1235-1258.