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Affirmative Action and Precollege Human Capital

  • Mitra Akhtari
  • Natalie Bau
  • Jean-William Laliberté
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 16, no. 1, January 2024
(pp. 1-32)
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Abstract

Though racial affirmative action (AA) policies are widespread in college admissions, evidence on their effects before college is limited. We study a US Supreme Court ruling that reinstated AA in three states. Using nationwide SAT data, we separately identify positive effects of AA for Whites and underrepresented minorities. Using Texas administrative data, we find that AA narrowed racial gaps in grades, attendance, and college applications. Improvements in minorities precollege human capital and college applications are concentrated in the top half of the test score distribution among the students for whom the policy most increases the returns to human capital investment.

Citation

Akhtari, Mitra, Natalie Bau, and Jean-William Laliberté. 2024. "Affirmative Action and Precollege Human Capital." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (1): 1-32. DOI: 10.1257/app.20210807

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
  • I28 Education: Government Policy
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
  • J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • K10 Basic Areas of Law: General (Constitutional Law)
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