Karl Boulware, Faculty Fellow

"As an African American man in the U.S. I have spent my entire existence studying, interacting with, and deconstructing the legacy of racism in the world and within myself. What excites me most about being a part of this fellowship is the opportunity to continue this work, but as a part of a collaborative through the arts where I get to be a representative of the economics profession and its quantitative methods."

Karl Boulware is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Wesleyan University. He is an applied macroeconomist who studies macroeconomic aspects of racial inequality. His recent research addresses topics such as racial wealth stratification and the frequency of discrimination charges over the business cycle. Past work has explored how time inconsistent preferences by individuals can lead to undersaving and underinvestment in human capital in the aggregate. At Wesleyan, Professor Boulware currently teaches courses on quantitative methods, financial crises, and the monetary transmission mechanism. He is the Women’s Lacrosse Faculty Partner, a former Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship Seed Grant judge, and Quantitative Analysis Center Summer Apprenticeship Program faculty sponsor.

Prior to Wesleyan, Boulware completed his Ph.D. at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Business in 2014. He earned an M.A. in Economics at Duke University in 2007, and a Bachelors of Business Administration in 2002 at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business.

He is a graduate of the Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics Fellowship Program, the Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession (CSMGEP) Mentoring Program, CSMGEP's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) Summer Economics Fellows Program, and is an alumnus of the American Economic Association Summer Program.

Boulware was born and raised in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York. Prior to his graduate studies in economics, he worked as a trading assistant and eventually, an equity trader. He enjoys current events, documentaries, spirituality, and hip hop as a way of life.

Visit the National Economics Association website.