Working Paper: NBER ID: w14885
Authors: Peter Arcidiacono; Esteban M. Aucejo; Hanming Fang; Kenneth I. Spenner
Abstract: We argue that once we take into account the students' rational enrollment decisions, mismatch in the sense that the intended beneficiary of affirmative action admission policies are made worse off could occur only if selective universities possess private information about students' post-enrollment treatment effects. This necessary condition for mismatch provides the basis for a new test. We propose an empirical methodology to test for private information in such a setting. The test is implemented using data from Campus Life and Learning Project (CLL) at Duke. Evidence shows that Duke does possess private information that is a statistically significant predictor of the students' post-enrollment academic performance. We also propose strategies to evaluate more conclusively whether the evidence of Duke private information has generated mismatch.
Keywords: Affirmative Action; Mismatch; Higher Education; Private Information
JEL Codes: D81; I28; J15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| private information (D82) | mismatch (C78) |
| private information (D82) | post-enrollment academic performance (I23) |
| mismatch (C78) | worse outcomes (I14) |
| absence of private information (D82) | rules out mismatch (C52) |
| students' pre-enrollment expectations (I23) | post-enrollment academic performance (I23) |
| demographic information (J10) | post-enrollment academic performance (I23) |