Working Paper: NBER ID: w10366
Authors: David Card; Alan B. Krueger
Abstract: Between 1996 and 1998 California and Texas eliminated the use of affirmative action in college and university admissions. At the states' elite public universities admission rates of black and Hispanic students fell by 30-50 percent and minority representation in the entering freshman classes declined. In this paper we ask whether the elimination of affirmative action caused any change in the college application behavior of minority students in the two states. A particular concern is that highly qualified minorities - who were not directly affected by the policy change - would be dissuaded from applying to elite public schools, either because of the decline in campus diversity or because of uncertainty about their admission prospects. We use information from SAT-takers in the two states to compare the fractions of minority students who sent their test scores to selective state institutions before and after the elimination of affirmative action. We find no change in the SAT-sending behavior of highly qualified black or Hispanic students in either state.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I28; J78
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Decline in minority admissions (J15) | application behavior of highly qualified minorities (J15) |
| Elimination of affirmative action (J78) | SAT sending behavior of highly qualified black or Hispanic students (I24) |
| Elimination of affirmative action (J78) | application behavior of highly qualified minority students (I24) |
| Elimination of affirmative action (J78) | shift towards less selective institutions (I23) |
| SAT sending behavior (C99) | application behavior of minority students (J15) |