Chika O. Okafor: Faculty Experts
Not seeing the results that match your search? FILTER BY CATEGORY AND FIELD
Chika O. Okafor
Field:
Focus Areas:
Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Discrimination, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Economic Inequality, Social Networks
Contact:
Media Relations Contact:
Shanice Harris
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Assistant Professor of Law
Assistant Professor of Economics (by courtesy)
Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations (by courtesy)
Faculty Fellow at the Institute of Policy Research
About
Areas of Focus
- Social network discrimination — how colorblind policies produce unequal outcomes through network structure
- Voting rights
- Redistricting and the Voting Rights Act
- Law and economics of inequality
- Criminal justice
- Prosecutorial behavior and sentencing
- Youth development and social mobility
Work/Research
Chika Okafor is an economist and legal scholar whose research reveals how inequality persists even under race-neutral rules. His concept of social network discrimination — published in the Journal of Law and Economics — demonstrates that opportunity flows through relationships, and that minorities receive systematically fewer network-based opportunities simply because of group size and the human tendency to connect with similar others. He also studies how elected prosecutors respond to political incentives, using large-scale criminal justice records to examine how election cycles shape sentencing outcomes. His research has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, WBEZ Chicago, Illinois Public Media's The 21st Show and in the Chicago Tribune. His writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, Slate, Newsweek and Democracy Docket. He is also the founder of Todaydream, a youth development organization connecting underrepresented students with diverse professional role models.