Affirmative Action Regulations Research Articles

Affirmative Action and Its Persistent Effects: A New Perspective

This article examines how firms respond to federal affirmative action regulation when it is temporary. As intended, affirmative action increases a firm’s black share of employees. Strikingly, the black share continues to grow at a similar pace even after a firm is deregulated. This persistence is driven in part by affirmative action inducing employers to improve their methods for screening potential hires.

The Persistent Effect of Temporary Affirmative Action

I estimate the dynamic effects of federal affirmative action regulation, exploiting variation in the timing of regulation and deregulation across work establishments. Affirmative action increases the black share of employees over time: in 5 years after an establishment is first regulated, the black share of employees increases by an average of 0.8 percentage points. Strikingly, the black share continues to grow at a similar pace even after an establishment is deregulated. I argue that this persistence is driven in part by affirmative action inducing employers to improve their methods for screening potential hires. (JEL J15, J23, J24, J83, K31)

The role of organizational learning in soft regulation of workplace gender equality

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain progress, or the lack of it, in achieving workplace gender equality goals prescribed by affirmative action regulation by using concepts from soft regulation and organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachThe research design is a longitudinal study (2002-2012) of a critical case, that of a single large organization in the male-dominated steel manufacturing, distribution and mining industries. The case focusses on the evidence about organizational learning to be found in that organization’s reports to government on its activities to promote workplace gender equality.FindingsWhile other factors play a role, the apparent failure of the soft regulation to generate a significant shift in gender equality outcomes may also be attributed to ineffective organizational learning, demonstrated by the absence of systematic reflection within the organization on how to improve workplace gender equality, and the lack of firm targets and external benchmarking.Research limitations/implicationsSelf-reported data may be overstated or incomplete. More research is needed to confirm the nature of the specific learning processes occurring within organizations.Practical implicationsAbsent the advent of hard sanctions in workplace gender equality regulation, the responsible government agencies may find it valuable to focus on ways to encourage target organizations to develop competence in organizational learning.Social implicationsMore effective gender equality regulation may change organizational policy and practice and improve work opportunities for women.Originality/valueRather than concluding that the only alternative, when soft regulation is unsuccessful, is hard regulation, this paper shifts the focus to ways that soft regulatory processes might be improved to strengthen their effect.

Women Leadership: A Comparative Study between Indonesia and Greece

One manifestation of women’s leadership is their representation in politics. Although regulation for their participation is implemented, representation in elected office is lower than anticipated. This article discusses women’s representation as leaders in strategic positions, the challenges of affirmative action regulation and the cultural barriers they face in Indonesia and Greece. The study was conducted in Indonesia and Greece, with documentation method as data collection technique such as: affirmative action regulation on women’s participation in strategic positions and official statistics of women in office. Mix methods employed for data analysis. The findings show three results. Firstly, there are differences in the representation of women as leaders both in numbers and strategic positions held between the two countries. The number of women representatives in parliament in Indonesia is lower than that of Greece, with 17 % and 20% respectively. However, the most important position obtained by a woman in Indonesia is state leader, whilst in Greece is merely minister. Secondly, both countries have implemented legislation for affirmative action regulating the percentage of women candidates. The challenge is how to ensure a raise of women representation as leaders in strategic positions. Finally, women still face cultural barriers such as stereotyping, marginalization and sub-ordination. Civic education providing skills and gender sensitivity concerning leadership for men and women can outdo the barriers. Concluding, differences of women’s leadership in Indonesia and Greece are seen in their number , position, regulation and cultural barriers. This study recommends both countries to conduct regulation concerning women’s representation, not candidacy.

Board size, corporate regulations and firm valuation in an emerging market: a simultaneous equation approach

We investigate the association between board size and firm valuation for a sample of 169 firms from 2002 to 2011 in South Africa (SA). The SA corporate context is interestingly and uniquely characterised by an urgency to meet affirmative action regulations, such as black empowerment in board appointments, limited qualified and experienced directors, especially black directors, concentrated ownership, weak enforcement of corporate regulations and greater government ownership. These features make SA corporate boards perform a weaker agency (advisory, monitoring and disciplining) role than Western European and US boards, but a stronger resource dependence role, by providing access to resources, such as business contacts and contracts. This suggests that any positive impact of board size on firm valuation is likely to depend on the effective execution of the resource dependence role more than the agency role. Our results suggest that board size has a positive association with firm valuation, consistent with larger boards providing better access to resources. Overall, our results support the resource dependence role of boards more than their agency role. The results are robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneity, as well as different types of accounting and market-based firm valuation measures.

Policy‐Elite Perceptions and Social Movement Success: Understanding Variations in Group Inclusion in Affirmative Action

Using historical analysis of the inclusiveness of Labor Department affirmative action regulations for African‐Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Latinos, women, and white ethnics, this article shows that understanding variations in social movement success requires understanding policy‐elite perceptions of the meanings of social movements and the groups they represent. Variation in perceived meanings along dimensions of definition, morality, or threat helps explain the speed of group inclusion, the amount of mobilization needed, and possiblity for failure. Ethnoracial minorities benefited from perceptions of definitional and moral similarity to blacks, but elites perceived women as different definitionally and white ethnics as different definitionally and morally. Policy‐elite perceptions create obstacles for some groups, forcing them to struggle longer and harder for the same policy outcome.

THE MEANING OF RACE TO EMPLOYERS

The unemployment problems of blacks in the United States have been the subject of considerable research in the social sciences since the 1980s. One way of studying the barriers to employment faced by blacks has been to interview employers, face to face, and directly ask them about their racial attitudes. These studies have concluded that a majority of employers believe that blacks, compared with other racial and ethnic groups, are uncooperative, unreliable, and lack sufficient skills for entry-level employment. The present study critically reexamines employer racial attitudes toward blacks and other groups through a case study of employer hiring in the electronics industry in Los Angeles. Using a different set of interview questions, employers reported (1) that blacks are reluctant to accept unskilled jobs due to a higher reservation wage, not because they lacked skills or a work ethic, (2) that employer racial attitudes varied by level of occupational skill, and (3) that affirmative action regulations modified the hiring process such that employers were less likely to rely on negative racial stereotypes in their hiring and more likely to rely on objective criteria when screening job seekers. I conclude by suggesting that employer racial attitudes are dynamic and, in large measure, shaped by institutional relationships within the workplace.

The Meaning of Race to Employers: A Dynamic Qualitative Perspective

The unemployment problems of blacks in the United States have been the subject of considerable research in the social sciences since the 1980s. One way of studying the barriers to employment faced by blacks has been to interview employers, face to face, and directly ask them about their racial attitudes. These studies have concluded that a majority of employers believe that blacks, compared with other racial and ethnic groups, are uncooperative, unreliable, and lack sufficient skills for entry-level employment. The present study critically reexamines employer racial attitudes toward blacks and other groups through a case study of employer hiring in the electronics industry in Los Angeles. Using a different set of interview questions, employers reported (1) that blacks are reluctant to accept unskilled jobs due to a higher reservation wage, not because they lacked skills or a work ethic, (2) that employer racial attitudes varied by level of occupational skill, and (3) that affirmative action regulations modified the hiring process such that employers were less likely to rely on negative racial stereotypes in their hiring and more likely to rely on objective criteria when screening job seekers. I conclude by suggesting that employer racial attitudes are dynamic and, in large measure, shaped by institutional relationships within the workplace.

Mitigating Barriers to Black Employment through Affirmative Action Regulations: A Case Study

Mitigating Barriers to Black Employment through Affirmative Action Regulations: A Case Study

Schools, Markets, and Family in the History of African-American Education

Arguments about the rise in relative education levels of African-Americans invoke (1) improvements in the quality of schools attended by blacks or (2) affirmative action regulations affecting schools and employers. Missing from these arguments is an explanation of the emergence of black education levels exceeding those of whites once the influence of family background factors has been controlled. School quality improvements, by themselves, could not have produced high observed black education levels net of family background factors. This study finds that black educational attainment net of family background influences became higher than that of whites in the 1950s--too early to be explained by affirmative action programs. This leaves the possibility that more subtle effects of government policy on labor markets and schools played a significant role in the rise of black education. Alternatively, it could be that a favorable orientation toward education in the African-American community has played a role in its members' educational advance.

Regional patterns of affirmative action compliance costs

In this paper we estimate the amount by which firms' labor costs are increased by compliance with affirmative action regulations imposed on federal contractors for 160 SMSAs in 1980. The paper focuses on determining the cause(s) for variation in these “compliance costs” across SMSAs and in identifying areas of high and low compliance cost. We find that compliance costs are lower in larger SMSAs, more rapidly growing SMSAs, and SMSAs that have relatively large proportions of minorities and females in the labor market.

Affirmative Action: A Case Study of an Organizational Effort

This article tests affirmative action effectiveness with organizational compliance to affirmative action regulations. Effectiveness is tested with data from a case study that in many ways represents a “best case” scenario. Goals are compared with outcomes using affirmative action progress reports and the employee database that was used to compile the reports. Although few of the goals were met by the end of the set timetable, exaggeration of progress was found and was found to occur most when actual progress was weakest. The implications of “status inflation” are then discussed in light of research linking mobility to organizational manipulation of work arrangements.

The Impact of Affirmative Action Regulation and Equal Employment Law on Black Employment

Was affirmative action successful in increasing employment opportunities for blacks? In this paper, affirmative action will refer to the provisions of Lyndon Johnson's Executive Order 11246 in 1965, as amended by Richard Nixon's Executive Order 11375 [3 C.F.R. 169 (1974)]. Under Executive Order 11246, federal contractors agree “not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, nor national origin, and to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin” [3 C.F.R. 169 202(1) (1974)].

Racial and Gender Composition of Health Education Faculty in Higher Education

For the past two decades, public institutions and those that contract with the United States Government have established policies and procedures concerned with affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. These new regulations arise from Executive Order 11246 (1965, amended 1967), which prohibits employment discrimination as a condition of conducting business with the government. In higher education, principles of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity have been adopted widely (Tucker, 1984). However, not all searches for faculty in health education have been able to create applicant pools that include qualified minorities and women. To conduct realistic searches that not only comply with affirmative action and equal opportunity regulations but also increase representation of women and minorities on health education faculty, it is necessary to develop a baseline of current representation and availability. This study was conducted to establish a data base

Antidiscrimination or Reverse Discrimination: The Impact of Changing Demographics, Title VII, and Affirmative Action on Productivity

Opponents of the integration by race and gender of the American workplace have argued that forced equity will entail reduced productivity as employers are forced to hire lower quality females and minorities. The numerous wage equation studies always reach the same dead-end: residual differences across race or gender are due either to discrimination or to unobserved quality differences. This study takes a new approach, and directly estimates over time the ratio of minority to white male, and of female to white male productivity, using a new two-digit SIC industry by state production function data set for 1966 and 1977. The major finding is that there is no significant evidence that the productivity of minorities or females decreased relative to that of white males as relative minority and female employment increased during the 1960's and 1970's. This study also presents evidence that Title VII litigation has played a significant role in increasing black employment. This suggests that the employment of minorities and females has not entailed large efficiency costs, and that Title VII litigation has had some success in fighting racial discrimination. Direct tests of the impact of Title VII litigation and affirmative action regulation also find no significant evidence that these policies have contributed to a productivity reduction.

The Economics of Enforcement of an Antidiscrimination Law: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Economics of Enforcement of an Antidiscrimination Law: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964Andrea H. BellerAndrea H. Beller Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Law and Economics Volume 21, Number 2Oct., 1978 Sponsored by The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and The University of Chicago Law School Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/466925 Views: 15Total views on this site Citations: 16Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1978 The University of Chicago Law SchoolPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Nishith Prakash The impact of employment quotas on the economic lives of disadvantaged minorities in India, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 180 (Dec 2020): 494–509.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.10.017Joni Hersch, Jennifer Bennett Shinall FIFTY YEARS LATER: THE LEGACY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34, no.22 (Feb 2015): 424–456.https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21824Joni Hersch, Jennifer Bennett Shinall Fifty Years Later: The Legacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2014).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2523481Justin McCrary The Effect of Court-Ordered Hiring Quotas on the Composition and Quality of Police, American Economic Review 97, no.11 (Feb 2007): 318–353.https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.97.1.318William J Collins Race, Roosevelt, and Wartime Production: Fair Employment in World War II Labor Markets, American Economic Review 91, no.11 (Mar 2001): 272–286.https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.91.1.272Kenneth Y. Chay The Impact of Federal Civil Rights Policy on Black Economic Progress: Evidence from the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, ILR Review 51, no.44 (Jul 1998): 608–632.https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399805100404Anthony R. Pratkanis, Marlene E. Turner The Proactive Removal of Discriminatory Barriers: Affirmative Action as Effective Help, Journal of Social Issues 52, no.44 (Jan 1996): 111–132.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1996.tb01853.xMarlene Turner, Anthony Pratkanis Affirmative Action as Help: A Review of Recipient Reactions to Preferential Selection and Affirmative Action, Basic and Applied Social Psychology 15, no.11 (Apr 1994): 43–69.https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp1501&2_3Jonathan S Leonard The Impact of Affirmative Action Regulation and Equal Employment Law on Black Employment, Journal of Economic Perspectives 4, no.44 (Nov 1990): 47–63.https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.4.4.47William R. Beer Sociology and the effects of affirmative action: A case of neglect, The American Sociologist 19, no.33 (Sep 1988): 218–231.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02691981S. Dex, P. J. Sloane DETECTING AND REMOVING DISCRIMINATION UNDER EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICIES, Journal of Economic Surveys 2, no.11 (Mar 1988): 1–27.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6419.1988.tb00034.xMwangi S. Kimenyi, William F. Shughart, Robert D. Tollison Affirmative action and unemployment, European Journal of Political Economy 4, no.44 (Jan 1988): 479–490.https://doi.org/10.1016/0176-2680(88)90012-2Clifford B Hawley, Tom S. Witt DISCRIMINATION AND THE EFFICIENCY OF AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AGENCY*, Policy Studies Journal 15, no.11 (Sep 1986): 17–27.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.1986.tb00441.xCharles A. Register Racial Employment and Earnings Differentials: The Impact of the Reagan Administration, The Review of Black Political Economy 15, no.11 (Jul 2018): 59–69.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02903859Lonnie K. Stevans, Charles Register, Paul Grimes Civil Rights Legislation and Racial Employment Differentials, The Review of Black Political Economy 13, no.33 (Jul 2018): 49–59.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02899913Louis Ferleger A CRITIQUE OF CONVENTIONAL EXPLANATION OF LABOR MARKET, CONDITIONS FOR EMPLOYED BLACKS*, Policy Studies Journal 10, no.33 (Sep 2005): 539–555.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.1982.tb00702.x