The effects of affirmative action on the incentives to human capital accumulation are ambiguous from a theoretical perspective and the scarce empirical evidence on the matter provides mixed results. In this paper, we address this issue by investigating the impacts of Brazil's Law of Quotas on the students' performance in the college entrance exam,…

This paper examines educational segregation in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro through the lens of a multifaceted centreperiphery relationship involving geographical, racial and historical dimensions. The paper first situates Brazilian racial inequalities historically, drawing on decolonial theory, before examining student enrolment patterns…

Since 2001, Brazilian universities have been implementing affirmative-action policies to correct the racial, social and ethnic disparities in university admissions. An examination of the social-inclusion policies at three public universities in Brazil--the University of Brasilia, the Federal University of Bahia and the State University of…

In 2004, the University of Brasilia established racial quotas. We find that quotas raised the proportion of black students, and that displacing applicants were from lower socioeconomic status families than displaced applicants. The evidence suggests that racial quotas did not reduce the preuniversity effort of applicants or students. Additionally,…

This paper contributes to research on affirmative action by examining issues of equity in the context of racial quotas in Brazil. We study the experience of the University of Brasilia, which established racial quotas in 2004 reserving 20% of available admissions slots for students who self-identified as black. Based on university admissions data…

This study explores the intercultural movements toward social justice in education in the Americas, most particularly, North America, and how U.S. multicultural movements and policies influence countries like Brazil. First we analyzed the movement toward multicultural practices to understand how those are developed both in the U.S., and in Brazil.…

This paper describes the results of a detailed study relating the performance of undergraduate students admitted to Brazil's State University of Campinas (Unicamp) from 1994 through 1997 and their socioeconomic and educational background. The study is based on a hierarchical model for the relevant variables involved. The main result is that…