Affirmative Action, Major Choice, and Long-Run Impacts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Bleemer
2000 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Athey ◽  
Christopher Avery ◽  
Peter Zemsky

We study how diversity evolves at a firm with entry-level and upper-level employees who vary in ability and “type” (gender or ethnicity). The ability of entry-level employees is increased by mentoring. An employee receives more mentoring when more upper-level employees have the same type. Optimal promotions are biased by type, and this bias may favor either the minority or the majority. We characterize possible steady states, including a “glass ceiling,” where the upper level remains less diverse than the entry level. A firm may have multiple steady states, whereby temporary affirmative-action policies have a long-run impact. (JEL J71, J41, D20)


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Long ◽  
Nicole A. Bateman

Affirmative action was banned in California, Texas, Washington, and Florida in the 1990s. Following this early wave, additional states banned the practice, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma. In response to concerns about underrepresented minorities’ falling college enrollment in flagship public universities, administrators and policymakers took a variety of steps to mitigate these declines. This article assesses the long-run changes in the racial and ethnic composition of selected universities after these bans. We find that the elimination of affirmative action has led to persistent declines in the share of underrepresented minorities among students admitted to and enrolling in public flagship universities in these states. These results imply that alternative policies and administrative decisions were unable to fully replace race-based affirmative action. Furthermore, we show that the antecedent conditions have only modestly improved in recent decades, suggesting that policymakers and administrators need to focus on improving these conditions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gazi Islam ◽  
Sarah E. S. Zilenovsky

This note examines the relationship between affirmative action (AA) program perceptions and women’s self-ascribed capacity and desire to become leaders. We propose that women who believe that their organization implements a program of preferential selection toward women will experience negative psychological effects leading to lowered self-expectations for leadership, but that this effect will be moderated by their justice perceptions of AA programs. We test this proposition empirically for the first time with a Latin American female sample. Among Brazilian women managers, desire but not self-ascribed capacity to lead was reduced when they believed an AA policy was in place. Both desire’s and capacity’s relationships with belief in an AA policy were moderated by justice perceptions.


1990 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 797-798
Author(s):  
Phyllis A. Katz
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen M. Glasener ◽  
Christian A. Martell ◽  
Julie R. Posselt

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