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Affirmative Action and Precollege Human Capital

Author

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  • Mitra Akhtari
  • Natalie Bau
  • Jean-William Laliberté

Abstract

Though racial affirmative action (AA) policies are widespread in college admissions, evidence on their effects before college is limited. We study a US Supreme Court ruling that reinstated AA in three states. Using nationwide SAT data, we separately identify positive effects of AA for Whites and underrepresented minorities. Using Texas administrative data, we find that AA narrowed racial gaps in grades, attendance, and college applications. Improvements in minorities precollege human capital and college applications are concentrated in the top half of the test score distribution among the students for whom the policy most increases the returns to human capital investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Mitra Akhtari & Natalie Bau & Jean-William Laliberté, 2024. "Affirmative Action and Precollege Human Capital," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 1-32, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:16:y:2024:i:1:p:1-32
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20210807
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    Cited by:

    1. Ritika Sethi, 2022. "Can Desegregation Close the Racial Gap in High School Coursework?," Papers 2208.12321, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    2. Soumitra Shukla, 2021. "Between College and That First Job: Designing and Evaluating Policies for Hiring Diversity," International Finance Discussion Papers 1331, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. Karlsson, Linn & Wikström, Magnus, 2021. "Admission groups and academic performance: A study of marginal entrants in the selection to higher education," Umeå Economic Studies 1000, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    4. Demid Getik & Marco Islam & Margaret Samahita, 2021. "The Inelastic Demand for Affirmative Action," Working Papers 202112, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Rodriguez, Viviana, 2023. "Student effort response to shifts in university admission policies," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Mello, Ursula, 2023. "Affirmative action and the choice of schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    7. Latinovic, Zoran & Chatterjee, Sharmila C., 2022. "Achieving the promise of AI and ML in delivering economic and relational customer value in B2B," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 966-974.
    8. Shuang Chen, 2022. "The Positive Effect of Women’s Education on Fertility in Low-Fertility China," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(1), pages 125-161, March.
    9. Getik, Demid & Islam, Marco & Samahita, Margaret, 2021. "The Inelastic Demand for Affirmative Action," Working Papers 2021:7, Lund University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • K10 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - General (Constitutional Law)

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