Ego, Testosterone, and the Academy: Why the Controversy Over Larry Summers is Important -Tech Central Station

On the Harvard President's remarks about women in science, Arnold Kling writes:

At one point in his talk, Summers trotted out a thesis first articulated by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, who argued that discrimination harms the discriminator. Becker's point is that it is inefficient to allow non-economic factors to affect a market decision. Therefore, the discriminator will achieve sub-optimal results, either in terms of consumption or profits.

Suppose that in math and science, some departments discriminate against women. Then according to the Becker-Summers argument, those departments, because they are willing to choose second-rate men over first-rate women, will be at a disadvantage relative to departments that are either nondiscriminatory or which discriminate in favor of women. Summers argues that we do not see evidence of these "profit opportunities." As Summers admits, this is a limited argument, because it does not speak to possible discrimination earlier in life. However, it does give pause to anyone who wants to give the automatic "True" response of discrimination.

Read the whole thing (via instapundit).

Among the illustrations available that this is a limited argument consider the possibility that government shelters those who discriminate from the normal economic consequences of their choices.