Working Paper: NBER ID: w12368
Authors: Justin McCrary
Abstract: Arguably the most aggressive affirmative action program ever implemented in the United States was a series of court-ordered racial hiring quotas imposed on municipal police departments. My best estimate of the effect of court-ordered affirmative action on workforce composition is a 14 percentage point gain in the fraction African American among newly hired officers. Evidence on police performance is mixed. Despite substantial black-white test score differences on police department entrance examinations, city crime rates appear unaffected by litigation. However, litigation lowers slightly both arrests per crime and the fraction black among serious arrestees.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: H4; H7; J1; J4; J7; K3; K4
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| court-ordered affirmative action policies (J78) | fraction of newly hired African American police officers (J45) |
| litigation (K41) | hiring practices of police departments (J45) |
| court-ordered affirmative action policies (J78) | overall police performance (H83) |
| court-ordered affirmative action policies (J78) | crime rates (K42) |
| litigation in neighboring jurisdictions (K41) | hiring practices of unlitigated departments (J45) |