The Efficacy of Large-Scale Affirmative Action at Elite Universities

Cecilia Machado, Germán Reyes and Evan Riehl
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Cecilia Machado: Graduate School of Economics, Getúlio Vargas Foundation
Evan Riehl: Department of Economics and ILR School, Cornell University

CEDLAS, Working Papers from CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Abstract: We study the effects of affirmative action at an elite Brazilian university that adopted race- and income-based quotas for 45 percent of its admission slots. We link admission records to national employer-employee data to examine how the policy affected the careers of both its targeted beneficiaries and the university’s other students. For students admitted through affirmative action, the policy led to a modest increase in early-career earnings that faded as their careers progressed. Conversely, the adoption of affirmative action caused a large and persistent decrease in earnings for the university’s most highly ranked students. We present evidence that these negative earnings effects are driven by a reduction in human capital accumulation and a decline in the value of networking.

JEL-codes: I26 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 83 pages
Date: 2023-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-lam and nep-lma
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dls:wpaper:0311

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