Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP14109
Authors: Mitra Akhtari; Natalie Bau; Jean-William Laliberte
Abstract: Race-based affirmative action policies are widespread in higher education. Despite the prevalence of these policies, there is limited evidence on whether they affect students before they reach college. We exploit the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which overturned affirmative action bans in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, but not in other states, to study the effect of affirmative action on high school students' outcomes. We analyze four data sets, including nationwide SAT data and administrative data for the state of Texas. The SAT data allow us to leverage state and time variation in difference-in-differences and synthetic control group analyses. Within Texas, variation in race, time, and ex ante ability further help us to isolate the effects of the policy change on secondary school grades, attendance, and college applications. Across data sets, outcomes, and identification strategies, the results all point toward gains for underrepresented minority students and reductions in the racial achievement gap. These gains were concentrated among students in the top of the ability distribution, who also experienced the largest increases in the returns to pre-college human capital in college admissions due to the policy change. This suggests that students increased their human capital investment in response to increases in the returns to effort.
Keywords: affirmative action; racial achievement gaps; human capital investment
JEL Codes: I24; I28; J15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Affirmative action policies (J78) | Increased precollege human capital investment among URM students (D29) |
| Affirmative action policies (J78) | Increased precollege human capital investment among high-ability URM students (D29) |
| Affirmative action policies (J78) | No decrease in precollege human capital investment for URM students (D29) |
| Affirmative action policies (J78) | Increased SAT scores for white students (I24) |
| Affirmative action policies (J78) | Decreased gap in college graduation rates for top-ability students (D29) |