William McKinley Rodgers III

Biographical Sketch

William Rodgers is the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Associate Professor of Economics at the College of William and Mary and a member of the Wilkins Forum at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. His research focuses on general issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems. His work examines a variety of topics including the relationship between racial earnings gaps and market-wide earnings inequality; gender inequality; the economics of education; affirmative action; and the evaluation of the impact of labor market policies. He is the author of numerous articles in scholarly journals and edited volumes on these topics.

Rodgers’ recent research explores the impact that the 1990’s economic expansion has had on the earnings and employment of Americans. Currently, he is examining the impact that increases in the federal minimum wage have on the food security of American families.

Professor Rodgers has been an Associate Editor for the Southern Economic Journal for two years and co-edited the book Prosperity for All: The Economic Boom and African Americans (Russell Sage Foundation, 2000). He served as the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor from January 2000 to January 2001. He is the director of the newly created Center for the Study of Equality at the College of William and Mary. Rodgers also serves on the Governor’s Advisory Board of Economists and the research boards of the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality and the Economic Policy Institute.

His policy work includes testifying before the Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, the Joint Sub-committee Studying the Status and Needs of African American Males in Virginia and serving as a consultant for the National Urban League, the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies and AFL-CIO.

Professor Rodgers chairs William and Mary’s Committee on Employee Opportunity, whose charge is to study and make recommendations on how to improve the paths of personal advancement and professional growth of the College’s classified, part-time and contract work force.

Professor Rodgers graduated from Dartmouth College in 1986 and earned M.A.’s from the University of California at Santa Barbara and Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1993. He is a past member of both the Williamsburg-James City County School Board and a Trustee for the New Horizons Regional Vocational Education Center. Currently, Professor Rodgers is President of the National Economic Association, co-chair of the Planning Committee of the United Way of Greater Williamsburg and a member of the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Minorities in the Economics Profession.

He is married to Yana Rodgers, Associate Professor of Economics at William and Mary. They have three young children.