I am very pleased that the American Economic Association (AEA) and the Federal Reserve Board have organized this conference on an important issue for our profession. In trying to raise awareness of diversity in the economics profession, I am aided by the fact that economists are well acquainted with the concept of diversity from their work. When conducting a survey, economists understand that the results will be more meaningful when the diversity of the sample approaches the diversity of the population being studied. In finance, we know that diversity is fundamentally important in spreading risk. History shows that ... (full story)