Working Paper: NBER ID: w13342
Authors: Braz Camargo; Todd Stinebrickner; Ralph Stinebrickner
Abstract: In two recent cases involving the University of Michigan (Gratz v. Bollinger and Gruttinger v. Bollinger), the Supreme Court examined whether race should be allowed to play an explicit role in the admission decisions of schools. The arguments made in support of affirmative action admission policies in these cases and others raise two fundamental questions. First, do students actually have incorrect beliefs about individuals from different races at the time of college entrance? Second, if students do have incorrect beliefs at the time of college entrance, can diversity on a college campus change these beliefs? While a small literature has recently shed some light on the second question, no previous work has been able to provide direct evidence about the first one. In this paper we examine the first question by taking advantage of unique data collected specifically for this purpose.
Keywords: affirmative action; higher education; racial diversity; student beliefs
JEL Codes: I20; J00; J15; K00
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Racial diversity (J15) | Friendship choices (D71) |
| Friendship choices (D71) | Beliefs about interracial compatibility (J15) |
| Beliefs about interracial compatibility (J15) | Incorrect beliefs about interracial compatibility (J15) |
| Beliefs about interracial compatibility (J15) | Racial sorting in friendship choices (C92) |
| Racial sorting in friendship choices (C92) | Beliefs about compatibility with friends of different races (J15) |
| Incorrect beliefs about interracial compatibility (J15) | Need for policy intervention (O25) |