The Social Science Journal 39 (2002) 483–488 Preference discrimination and faculty diversity Hervé Queneau ∗ , Baniyelme Zoogah Department of Economics and Human Resources, Williams College of Business, Xavier University, 3800 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45207-3212, USA Abstract Drawing upon Becker’s theory of preference discrimination, this paper proposes a theoretical frame- work that analyzes the effect of employer discrimination, employee discrimination and customer dis- crimination on faculty diversity. The authors then consider institutional features of the U.S. academic workplace in order to discuss the extent to which each source of discrimination can explain faculty diversity across universities. This discussion suggests that customer discrimination is a particularly con- vincing argument to explain differences in faculty diversity across U.S. universities. Finally, research directions are suggested. © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Although in recent years many U.S. universities have claimed a commitment to achieving a racially diverse faculty, 1 there is still substantial under-representation of African-American and Hispanic faculty. The overall representation ratio 2 of African-American and Hispanic faculty is .44 and .27, respectively whereas that of Asian-American and White faculty is 1.34 and 1.11, respectively. Evidence also shows that African-American faculty are under-represented at the most prestigious U.S. universities (Cross, 1998), while about 60% of them work in historically Black colleges and universities (U.S. Department of Education, 1996). An important research question is to explain the driving forces behind faculty diversity in U.S. universities. Two explanations are often advanced. There is the “academic pipeline” argument 3 that explains the under-representation of African-American and Hispanic faculty as the result of a low supply of African-American and Hispanic faculty. Such an argument has some relevance since the proportion of doctoral degree holders is relatively smaller among African-Americans and Hispanics than among Whites and Asian-Americans (U.S. Department ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-513-745-3062. E-mail address: queneau@xavier.xu.edu (H. Queneau). 0362-3319/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII:S0362-3319(02)00197-0