Evidence about the potential role for affirmative action in higher education
By: Braz Camargo, Todd Stinebrickner, Ralph Stinebrickner.
Contributors: Stinebrickner, Todd R.; Stinebrickner, Ralph.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- no. 13342.; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) -- working paper no. 13342.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 30
Subjects: Discrimination in education -- United States -- Mathematical models; Affirmative action programs in education -- United States; Universities and colleges -- United States -- Admission; Minorities -- Education (Higher) -- Government policy -- United States; Educational equalization -- United States
Description: In two recent cases involving the University of Michigan (Gratz v. Bollinger and Gruttinger v. Bollinger), the Supreme Court examined whether race should be allowed to play an explicit role in the admission decisions of schools. The arguments made in support of affirmative action admission policies in these cases and others raise two fundamental questions. First, do students actually have incorrect beliefs about individuals from different races at the time of college entrance? Second, if students do have incorrect beliefs at the time of college entrance, can diversity on a college campus change these beliefs? While a small literature has recently shed some light on the second question, no previous work has been able to provide direct evidence about the first one. In this paper we examine the first question by taking advantage of unique data collected specifically for this purpose.
Notes: "August 2007"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 26-27).

Also available in PDF from the NBER world wide web site (www.nber.org).