The Academic Consequences of Affirmative Action Bans Combined with Diversity Targets

Eric Zitzewitz

No 33563, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines the problem of a college affected by both a legal ban on affirmative action in admissions and pressure to raise enrollment of underrepresented minorities (URMs), as exemplified by UCLA, which adopted a holistic admissions process in 2006 in response to protests over low URM enrollment. The new process increased the URM share of admitted students by about 3 percentage points, but the primary effects of the changes were on admissions decisions within racial/ethnic groups. Within all groups, admission rates for applicants with high SAT scores and low income and parental education declined. Measured relative to UCLA’s pre-2006 revealed preferences, achieving the increase in URM admissions via holistic admissions was roughly 4-5 times as costly as doing so via a simple reallocation of slots between groups. Had UCLA complied with a stricter interpretation of the affirmative action ban, it would have been significantly more costly.

JEL-codes: I23 K39 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03
Note: ED LE
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