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What Does Affirmative Action Do?

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Author Info
Harry J. Holzer
David Neumark

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Abstract

We use data from a survey of employers to investigate how Affirmative Action in recruiting and hiring influences hiring practices, personnel policies, and ultimately employment outcomes. Our results show that Affirmative Action increases the number of recruitment and screening practices used by employers, raises their willingness to hire stigmatized applicants, increases the number of minority or female applicants as well as employees, and increases employers' tendencies to provide training and to formally evaluate employees. When Affirmative Action is used in recruiting, it does not lead to lower credentials or performance of women and minorities hired. When it is also used in hiring, it yields female and minority employees whose credentials are somewhat weaker, though performance generally is not. Over than, the more intensive search, evaluation, and training that accompany Affirmative Action appear to offset any tendencies of the policy to lead to hiring of less-qualified or less-productive women and minorities.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6605.

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Date of creation: Jun 1998
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6605

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination
J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Barron, John M & Bishop, John & Dunkelberg, William C, 1985. "Employer Search: The Interviewing and Hiring of New Employees," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 43-52, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Holzer, Harry J, 1987. "Informal Job Search and Black Youth Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 446-52, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Leonard, Jonathan S, 1985. "Affirmative Action as Earnings Redistribution: The Targeting of Compliance Reviews," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 363-84, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Harry J. Holzer, . "Black Applicants, Black Employees, and Urban Labor Market Policy," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1162-98, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Eddy Ng & Willi Wiesner, 2007. "Are Men Always Picked Over Women? The Effects of Employment Equity Directives on Selection Decisions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(2), pages 177-187, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Vendrik,Maarten C.M. & Schwieren,Christiane, 2005. "Identification, screening and stereotyping in labor market discrimination," Research Memoranda 013, Maastricht : METEOR, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization. [Downloadable!]
  3. Joanne D. Leck, 2002. "Making Employment Equity Programs Work for Women," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 28(s1), pages 85-100, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Linda Barrington & Kenneth R. Troske, 2001. "Workforce Diversity and Productivity: An Analysis of Employer-Employee Match Data," Economics Program Working Papers 01-02, The Conference Board, Economics Program. [Downloadable!]
  5. Michael A. Stoll & Steven Raphael & Harry J. Holzer, 2001. "Why Are Black Employers More Likely to Hire African Americans than White Employers?," JCPR Working Papers 228, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
  6. Stewart, Frances, 2006. "Policies towards Horizontal Inequalities in Post-Conflict Reconstruction," Working Papers RP2006/149, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  7. Vivian Price, 2002. "Race, Affirmative Action, and Women's Employment in US Highway Construction," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 87-113, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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