That's Affirmative: Incentivizing Standards or Standardizing Incentives? Incentive Effects of Affirmative Action Policies in India

Abstract

I study the impacts of affirmative action policies on schooling incentives in India. My results indicate that when the probability of getting into college or of getting a job is increased through affirmative action, minority group students are incentivized to stay in school longer given the prospects of directly benefiting from such policies in the near future. This approach is unique, in that it focuses on the incentives affirmative action gives to those who are not yet eligible for the policy per se. I create a comprehensive primary dataset using state commission reports which allows for a regression discontinuity and difference-in-discontinuities analysis. These results are supported at the national level by using a difference-in-differences approach, and utilizing variation in state-level policies. Together these estimators consistently show that affirmative action policies incentivize about 1.38 more years of education for the average minority group student, and 2.2 more years of education for a student from a marginal minority sub-group. Given the debate about the effectiveness of such policies, my research shows that it is particularly important for both researchers and policy makers to take into account these incentive effects when evaluating affirmative action programs.