Will Affirmative-Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes?

Stephen Coate and Glenn Loury

American Economic Review, 1993, vol. 83, issue 5, 1220-40

Abstract: A key question concerning affirmative action is whether the labor-market gains it brings to minorities can continue without it becoming a permanent fixture in the labor market. The authors argue that this depends on how the policy affects employers' beliefs about the productivity of minority workers. They study the joint determination of employer beliefs and worker productivity in a model of statistical discrimination in job assignments. The authors prove that, even when identifiable groups are equally endowed ex ante, affirmative action can bring about a situation in which employers (correctly) perceive the groups to be unequally productive, ex post. Copyright 1993 by American Economic Association.

Date: 1993
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (571)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8282%2819931 ... O%3B2-4&origin=repec full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.

Related works:
Working Paper: Will Affirmative Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes? (1992)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:83:y:1993:i:5:p:1220-40

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().