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Affirmative Action Outcomes - Evidence from a Law School in Brazil

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  • Ana Ribeiro

Abstract

The main goal of affirmative action (AA) policies is to give opportunities otherwise nonexistent to minorities and underprivileged students. In this paper, I investigate whether the introduction of college affirmative action policy enables AA candidates to obtain a career in Law and to catch up with high scoring candidates who did not get admitted due to the policy (i.e., displaced candidates). To do so, I use a new dataset from a large university in Rio de Janeiro, the first in Brazil to adopt the quota system for both black and public school students. This dataset is combined with the OAB exam passage records, equivalent to the American Bar exam. Preliminary results suggest that the quota policy improves OAB passage rates for beneficiaries. I find that lawyer certification for underprivileged students increases by 33 p.p., even though they underperform by 7.68 p.p when compared to displaced candidates. I also present evidence that displaced candidates do not experience any drop on their OAB exam passage rates due to the policy. Furthermore, I find that public school quota beneficiaries who score close to the admittance cutoff score present an increase in the probability of passing the OAB exam by up to 52 p.p.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Ribeiro, 2016. "Affirmative Action Outcomes - Evidence from a Law School in Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2016_43, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2016wpecon43
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    File URL: http://www.repec.eae.fea.usp.br/documentos/AnaCarolina_43WP.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Cecilia Machado & Germ'an Reyes & Evan Riehl, 2023. "The Direct and Spillover Effects of Large-scale Affirmative Action at an Elite Brazilian University," Papers 2305.02513, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    2. Rodrigo Zeidan & Silvio Luiz de Almeida & In'acio B'o & Neil Lewis Jr, 2023. "Racial and income-based affirmative action in higher education admissions: lessons from the Brazilian experience," Papers 2304.13936, arXiv.org.
    3. Machado, Cecilia & Reyes, Germán & Riehl, Evan, 2022. "Alumni Job Networks at Elite Universities and the Efficacy of Affirmative Action," IZA Discussion Papers 15026, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Cecilia Machado & Germán Reyes & Evan Riehl, 2023. "The Efficacy of Large-Scale Affirmative Action at Elite Universities," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0311, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    affirmative action; higher education; policy evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

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