ERIC Number: ED661423
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Aug
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Long-Run Impacts of Banning Affirmative Action in US Higher Education. Working Paper 32778
Francisca M. Antman; Brian Duncan; Michael F. Lovenheim
National Bureau of Economic Research
This paper estimates the long-run impacts of banning affirmative action on men and women from under-represented minority (URM) racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Using data from the US Census and American Community Survey, we use a difference-in-differences framework to compare the college degree completion, graduate degree completion, earnings, and employment of URM individuals to non-URM individuals before and after affirmative action bans went into effect across several US states. We also employ event study analyses and alternative estimators to confirm the validity of our approach and discuss the generalizability of the findings. Results suggest that banning affirmative action results in a decline in URM women's college degree completion, earnings, and employment relative to non-Hispanic White women, driven largely by impacts on Hispanic women. Thus, affirmative action bans resulted in an increase in racial/ethnic disparities in both college degree completion and earnings among women. Effects on URM men are more ambiguous and indicate significant heterogeneity across states, with some estimates pointing to a possible positive impact on labor market outcomes of Black men. These results suggest that the relative magnitude of college quality versus mismatch effects vary for URM men and women and highlight the importance of disaggregating results by gender, race, and ethnicity. We conclude by discussing how our results compare with others in the literature and directions for future research.
Descriptors: Affirmative Action, Educational Discrimination, Equal Opportunities (Jobs), Gender Discrimination, Racial Discrimination, Sex Fairness, Minority Group Students, Educational Policy, Civil Rights, Equal Education, Politics of Education, Graduation Rate, Comparable Worth, Salary Wage Differentials
National Bureau of Economic Research. 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-5398. Tel: 617-588-0343; Web site: http://www.nber.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Grant or Contract Numbers: 2121120