Roland Fryer: Economics of Race and Education

Roland Fryer: Economics of Race and Education Name Institution Affiliation Roland Fryer: Economics of Race and Education Roland G Fryer is an African American Economics professor at Harvard University. He specializes in tackling economic issues that plague people of the black race through research projects that revolve around social problems, labor economics and the economics of education. His publications have been significant in addressing the persistent racial inequality in the United States and with an emphasis on the educational and economic opportunities of the minority and the socially disadvantaged. Roland’s researches and studies have enabled him to bridge the gap in the racial divide and inequality in the matters of racial and educational economics in the US over the recent years. Ronald’s contribution in the economics of race and education has facilitated his successful career because of its contribution in various micro-economic principles, including perfect competition, opportunity cost, supply and demand, competitive industries, and consumer and supplier surplus among others. The essay seeks to examine Roland Fryers efforts in tackling economics of race and education in relation to the micro-economics principle of perfect competition. Roland Fryer has made significant efforts to influence reforms in the education sector in the US by evaluating policies that would the learning opportunities of the disadvantaged children who are mostly of the African American descent. His studies have been focused on addressing the inequalities in the investments in education among the different races with the government offering more than sufficient assistance to the white dominated institutions. These efforts have seen him implement field experiments across urban school districts in the US in attempts examine education interventions by the government. Roland’s efforts have been to solve the inequalities and segregation of the black people by achieving perfect competition where both the white and black students will have equal access to education. The principle of perfect competition is characterized by a perfect market where the market is at equilibrium and quantity supplied equals quantity demanded and is idealized by various conditions(Henderson, 2016). These idealizing conditions include a market where both the consumers and producers have the perfect information regarding the goods and services, there are no hindrances to entry or exit, a market with many consumers and producers, both in agreement of purchasing and selling the goods and services at a certain price, markets with anti-competitive regulations that ensure fair competition and markets where no participant has the power to determine prices. Roland Fryer believes that the inequalities in education in the US against the African American people is not only because of the social problem of racism that has existed for centuries, but also because the education sector operates in an imperfect market, which as a result leads to the unfair competition. The education sector in the US is a profit making business where the participants and especially those that control it are in the venture to make not normal but abnormal profits. Hence, they compromise the quality of education to those from underprivileged families who can’t afford to pay for qua...