Racial segregation patterns in selective universities

Peter Arcidiacono, Esteban Aucejo, Andrew Hussey and Kenneth Spenner

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper examines sorting into interracial friendships at selective universities. We show significant friendship segregation, particularly for blacks. Indeed, black friendships are no more diverse in college than in high school despite the colleges blacks attend having substantially smaller black populations. We show that part of the reason for the segregation patterns is large differences in academic background coupled with students being more likely to form friendships with those of similar academic backgrounds. Within a school, stronger academic backgrounds make interracial friendships with blacks less likely and friendships with Asians more likely. These results suggest that affirmative action admission policies at selective universities which drive a wedge between the academic characteristics of different racial groups may result in increased within school segregation.

JEL-codes: I20 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/51561/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Racial Segregation Patterns in Selective Universities (2013)
Working Paper: Racial Segregation Patterns in Selective Universities (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:51561

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