College Admission with Multidimensional Privileges: The Brazilian Affirmative Action Case

Orhan Aygün and Inacio Bo
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Orhan Aygun ()

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-28

Abstract: In 2012, Brazilian public universities were mandated to use affirmative action policies for candidates from racial and income minorities. We show that the policy makes the students' affirmative action status a strategic choice and may reject high-achieving minority students while admitting low-achieving majority students. Empirical data shows evidence consistent with this type of unfairness in more than 49 percent of the programs. We propose a selection criterion and an incentive-compatible mechanism that, for a wider range of similar problems and the one in Brazil in particular, is fair and removes any gain from strategizing over the privileges claimed.

JEL-codes: D82 H52 I23 I28 J15 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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DOI: 10.1257/mic.20170364

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