Patrick Leon Mason is an American economist who is a professor of

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst.

Education and early life

Mason was born in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...

, and raised in

Sebring, Florida Sebring ( ) is a city in the south-central Florida and is the county seat of Highlands County, Florida, United States, nicknamed "The City on the Circle", in reference to Circle Drive, the center of the Sebring Downtown Historic District. As of t ...

, where he began manual labor as an agricultural field worker at the age of 4. He attended

St. Edward's University St. Edward's University is a private, Catholic university in Austin, Texas. It was founded and is operated in the Holy Cross tradition. History Founding and early history St. Edward's University was founded by the Reverend Edward Sorin, CSC ...

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

on a College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) scholarship. As a graduate student in Economics at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, he observed the better conditions of manual laborers in Michigan who were represented by unions, but found traditional economic theory did not fit his lived experience of the labor market. He completed his PhD at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Career

Mason is Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, where he is also affiliated with the Political Economy Research Institute. Previously, he was employed at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

Tuskegee University Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was d ...

Clark Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Found ...

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

, and the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. His research focuses on racial disparities in law enforcement, intergenerational mobility and racial inequality, and the economics of identity. He is a past Chairman of the Board of Directors, Partners for Dignity & Rights (formerly the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative), and he has been president of the National Economic Association. He is currently a board member of the Fair Foods Standards Council.

Selected publications

* Darity, William A., and Patrick L. Mason. "Evidence on discrimination in employment: Codes of color, codes of gender." Journal of Economic Perspectives 12, no. 2 (1998): 63–90. * Darity Jr, William A., Patrick L. Mason, and James B. Stewart. "The economics of identity: the origin and persistence of racial identity norms." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 60, no. 3 (2006): 283–305. * Mason, Patrick L. "Annual income, hourly wages, and identity among Mexican‐Americans and other Latinos." Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 43, no. 4 (2004): 817–834. * Close, Billy R., and Patrick L. Mason. "Searching for efficient enforcement: Officer characteristics and racially biased policing." Rev. L & Econ. 3 (2007): 263. * Mason, Patrick L. "Race, culture, and skill: Interracial wage differences among African Americans, Latinos, and whites." The Review of Black Political Economy 25, no. 3 (1997): 5-39.

References

Living people 21st-century American economists St. Edward's University alumni The New School alumni African-American economists Labor economists Florida State University faculty Economists from Florida People from Tallahassee, Florida Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people Presidents of the National Economic Association {{US-economist-stub