Effects Of Affirmative Action Research Articles

Affirmative Action in Higher Education: A Systematic Literature Review

This systematic literature review aimed to synthesize the existing literature on affirmative action in higher education. In the literature search, the researcher used different electronic databases. The databases used were ERIC, JSTOR, Willey, and Google Scholar. Search terms were formulated and applied to the online databases. A total of 80 study articles were identified, and 15 studies were included in the study after applying inclusion, exclusion, and quality assessment criteria. Research questions guided the review process. PICO was used to formulate the research questions. The paper was prepared using the planning, protocol, extraction, analysis, and reporting stages. This systematic review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) criteria and used Zotero for reference management. The study revealed that affirmative action is provided to promote equity and access for minority and historically discriminated subgroups who wish to participate in higher education. Affirmative action is a controversial issue in higher education. Research on the effects of affirmative action in higher education has resulted in mixed outcomes. Researchers in the study of affirmative action in higher education used various research methods. The systematic literature review conducted also showed that there are still gaps in affirmative action research in higher education. To this effect, further study could be done in the future on the impact of affirmative action on students’ performance and attainment, the impact of affirmative action on labor market outcomes and earnings, and graduate rates of beneficiaries. Finally, it is uncertain what the future holds for affirmative action.

Racial quotas in higher education and pre-college academic performance: evidence from Brazil

ABSTRACT The effects of affirmative action on the incentives to human capital accumulation are ambiguous from a theoretical perspective and the scarce empirical evidence on the matter provides mixed results. In this paper, we address this issue by investigating the impacts of Brazil’s Law of Quotas on the students’ performance in the college entrance exam, the ENEM. We provide causal evidence that the law fostered incentives to pre-college human capital accumulation, inducing students to attain higher ENEM scores. Moreover, the effects of the quotas were greater in quantitative-intensive subjects and these impacts increased throughout the first years after the law’s implementation.

Effects of Affirmative Action on Educational and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Nepal's Reservation Policy

We evaluate the impact of an affirmative action policy, which reserves quotas in public jobs for disadvantaged groups, on educational and labour market outcomes through ‘incentive effects’ in future employment prospects. Unlike the affirmative action policies based only on caste (in India) or race (in the United States), Nepal offers a novel context because its policy provides multiple channels of affirmation in public jobs to highly discriminated groups, depending on their caste/ethnicity, gender, geographic origin, and impairment status. Our difference-in-differences estimates using the Nepal Labour Force Survey III (2017/18) suggest that the policy significantly improved the educational and labour market outcomes of younger reservation eligible in the schoolaged cohort at the time of policy change. On average, the younger cohort improved their years of schooling by 1.53 years and monthly earnings by NPR 1,812 (approximately USD 17.76; about 11% of the national average). Our findings also indicate a higher policy impact on education for those who obtain treatment through multiple channels. However, the higher educational attainments of these multiple treatment groups are yet to transmit fully into their labour market outcomes. Our findings offer some important policy implications for not only Nepal but also societies fighting to reduce inequalities across caste, geographic, ethnic and racial groups

Foreign practice of positive discrimination

The article is devoted to the actual problem of modern society — positive discrimination. The introduction of preferential treatment is accompanied by intense controversy, the main disputes are centered around the issues of meeting such a policy with certain criteria of fairness and possible distortion of the incentives that it creates for beneficiaries. The author, based on a comprehensive analysis of doctrinal views and the experience of some countries, identifies common trends and differences in scientific views regarding the use of positive measures, offers his definition. It is worth noting that the lack of a unified opinion of specialists, the unformed practice of implementing the policy of positive discrimination actualize the chosen topic as the subject of research. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that due to the fundamental nature of the real and potential problems of affirmative action, they appear in the center of state policy as a means of economic growth/efficiency or as a way to achieve equality and social justice. Positive discrimination is aimed at compensating for the consequences of difficult socio-economic conditions that have affected certain groups of the population. There is a risk of stigmatization as a real and destructive phenomenon, the elimination of which will only harm minorities without eradicating racist beliefs. Therefore, the author believes that the effectiveness of affirmative action should be aimed not only at redistributing the positions of groups and providing preferential benefits (preferences), but also at structural changes in modern society, perpetuating the marginalization of certain classes.

Racial quotas in higher education and pre-college academic performance: Evidence from Brazil

The effects of affirmative action on the incentives to human capital accumulation are ambiguous from a theoretical perspective and the scarce empirical evidence on the matter provides mixed results. In this paper, we address this issue by investigating the impacts of Brazil’s Law of Quotas on the students’ performance in the college entrance exam, the ENEM. The law established that a specific share of places in Brazilian federal universities should be filled by non-white students from public high schools. We employ a difference-in-differences approach in order to estimate the effects of the implementation of these quotas on the ENEM scores and provide causal evidence that the law fostered incentives to pre-college human capital accumulation. Moreover, the effects of the quotas were greater in more quantitative- intensive subjects but were not different by gender or parental education, and these impacts increased throughout the first years after the law’s implementation.

New Perspectives on the Effectiveness of Affirmative Action in School Choice

New Perspectives on the Effectiveness of Affirmative Action in School Choice

Gender political violence and the unfulfilled promise of substantial democracy: a look at Brazil and Colombia

Este artigo problematiza a violência política de gênero, expondo a promessa incumprida do Estado constitucional, alquebrada pela perpetuação das estruturas patriarcais, reforçadas pelo racismo. Trata-se de reflexão sobre o Brasil e a Colômbia, modelos culturais similares na América Latina, examinando a legislação que reserva cotas para o registro de candidaturas femininas e o desafio imposto ao sistema de justiça no combate à fraude dessas regras. O alcance e a efetivação da ação afirmativa, a prova da fraude e as consequências da sua constatação, são os temas que se colocam ao debate, filtrados pelo paradigma de Estado Democrático de Direito.

The incentive and efficiency effects of affirmative action: does envy matter?

Abstract This paper introduces envy into the study of affirmative action (AA) policies. Envy is defined as occurring when people have the same income with different abilities or with equal abilities have different incomes because of unequal access to employment opportunities—which occurs both under adverse and compensatory-discrimination. I analyse how envy, when there is discrimination, interacts with incentive for individuals to make productivity-enhancing investment and thereby affects economic efficiency. A policymaker maximizes the expected utility of the population taking into account the trade-off between fairness or equity (no-envy) and efficiency. An exclusive equal opportunity policy (EOP) that forestalls envy would allocate skilled jobs in a manner skewed towards the historically advantaged group. I study the conditions under which AA is fairness-improving in access to ‘good’ jobs and the implications for efficiency in job allocation between ex ante advantaged and disadvantaged groups.

Fathers as Lemons: Designing Mechanisms to Support Equal Sharing of Housework

Many scholars have pointed to the inequality in household responsibilities as the major source for the gender inequality and inferiority of women in the job market. Conventionally, affirmative action is perceived as a tool for addressing this problem. We argue that a general equilibrium analysis of these policies on both the job market and the division of work in the domestic sphere reveals how such policies can backfire, and worsen women’s status in the job market. We underscore in our model how the existence of two types of males — “cooperators” who assume equal responsibility for household work and “shirkers” who don’t — affects the outcome of the policies. Affirmative action may cause males to switch their type from cooperators to shirkers. If the switching effect is strong enough, it could net out the positive effect of affirmative action, leaving females with more housework and less time for investing in professional advancement. We suggest an alternative mechanisms for addressing the problem, primarily affirmative action for cooperating males, in order to incentivize male to equally share housework responsibilities.

From Tokens to Quotas: The Hiring and Promoting of African American Males in Corporate America

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Congress. The immediate result of the Act’s passage, and the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C.), was the removal of some hiring and promotional barriers that had historically been placed in front of minorities, and in particular African American males. When these barriers were removed, African American males began to receive long-overdue hiring and promotional opportunities. However, these opportunities were initially viewed as a sign of tokenism. An African American male in a position of authority was frequently viewed as a Token Negro. This tokenism quickly emerged into well-drafted affirmative action plans instituted by many corporations. The results of the plans, in many cases, were institutionalized quota systems to get corporations to a certain level of minority representation. But have these quotas really fostered greater hiring and promotional opportunities for African American males? Has the playing field been leveled? Has the election of Barack Obama signified that African American Males have finally made it? Or are they simply a formal process of increased tokenism with no increase in opportunity? This paper will address these questions, while looking at:-- relevant employment statistics and how African American males have faired since Title VII was instituted, -- the hiring practices of employers -- from the effects of affirmative action and the court’s view of it, to the recruitment process and the effect criminal records have on African American male employability,-- the challenges faced in obtaining equitable pay and promotional opportunities, and -- proposals to help weaken the devastating effects discrimination continues to have on African American males.

For the few not the many? The effects of affirmative action on presence, prominence, and social capital of women directors in Norway

Governments have implemented various affirmative action policies to address vertical sex segregation in organizations. A gender representation law was introduced in Norway, which required public limited companies’ boards to have at least 40% representation of each sex by 2008. This law acted as an external shock, and this paper aims to explore its effects. In particular, it explores the gender bias, the emergence and sex of prominent directors, and directors’ social capital. We utilize data from May 2002 to August 2009 to analyze these aspects. The implied intention of the law was to create a larger pool of women acting as directors on boards, and the law has had the effect of increasing the representation of women on boards. However, it has also created a small elite of women directors who rank among the top on a number of proxies of influence.

The Effects of America's Three Affirmative Action Programs on Academic Performance

Although affirmative action programs for minority students form just one of several criteria for preferential admissions to American colleges and universities, little research has compared the impact of other large “affirmative actions” programs such as those for athletes and legacies. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF), a sample of nearly 4,000 students in 28 elite American colleges and universities, we develop models that test claims about the effects of affirmative action—namely mismatch hypothesis and stereotype threat—on college performance in three groups: minorities, athletes, and legacies. First, we estimate models predicting two direct and indirect effects suggested by stereotype threat: hours studied per week and the degree of psychological performance burden reported by students. Next we include these direct and indirect measures of stereotype threat and the mismatch hypothesis on grades earned through the end of sophomore year and the likelihood of leaving school by spring of junior year. We do not find strong evidence for the mismatch hypothesis as applied to minorities and athletes, although legacies who enjoyed a greater admissions bonus earned lower grades. Minorities attending institutions that practice greater affirmative action were less likely to drop out but did report lower grades. We also find that legacies and athletes who attend a school that practices institutional affirmative action are indeed more likely to drop out of school.

Understanding affirmative action: politics, discrimination, and the search for justice

1. Affirmative Action: The Concept and the Controversy 2. Early Efforts Focusing on Equality of Opportunity 3. Affirmative Action and Preferential Selection 4. Assessing the Argument: A Review of the Case For and Against Affirmative Action 5. The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action: An Examination of the Early Development of Statutory and Constitutional Constraints 6. Cases from 1995 to 2003: Challenges, Uncertainty, and the Survival of Affirmative Action 7. Evidence on the Effectiveness of Affirmative Action 8. Affirmative Action in the Twenty-first Century Notes Index

South African Experience of Gender and Affirmative Action: A Research Report

This research report is based on a study carried out to examine the degree of effectiveness of affirmative action in reversing the ills suffered by women in general and Black women in particular on account of apartheid. The main objective is to probe the operationalization of affirmative action in the context of South Africa and to consider if its underlying logic directed specifically at Black women is sufficiently strong to deal with the issue of gender inequality which intersects with other race and class dynamics. Rather than focusing primarily on the experience of Black women the research report probes into the ways affirmative action has been formulated planned initiated implemented and co-ordinated by various agencies and departments of government. The report is based on the view that the ultimate judgment as to the effectiveness and success or otherwise of affirmative action to respond to the challenges of the past and to meet the needs of the previously underprivileged and its ability to foster and innovate ideas that support appropriate intervention strategies remains with the government itself. In 1995 the government of South Africa conducted a socio-economic survey to identify the ways in which the measures adopted in relation to affirmative action have contributed to the understanding of the lives of Black South African women. (excerpt)

College applications and the effect of affirmative action

Abstract This paper evaluates the behavioral response of college-bound high school seniors to changes in college affirmative action admissions policies during the late 1990s. After the elimination of affirmative action in California and Texas, the gap between the numbers of SAT score reports sent by non-minority and minority students to in-state, public colleges significantly widened. To explain the number of score reports sent to various types of institutions, a count model is estimated as a system of seemingly unrelated regressions using semiparametric generalized least squares. The effect of changes in state policy on the number of reports of minority and non-minority students are simulated and compared to the actual responses. The simulation predicts a large decrease in the number of reports sent by minority students and a large increase in non-minority score reports sent to top-tier public colleges as a result of changes in the students’ probabilities of acceptance.

The consequences of premature abandonment of affirmative action in medical school admissions.

The US Supreme Court recently accepted on appeal 2 cases from the University of Michigan regarding the constitutionality of race-conscious decision making in higher education admissions. The consequences of the Court's decision will directly affect the future of medicine in the United States. Medical schools have a societal obligation to select and educate the physician workforce of the future. To outlaw the use of affirmative action in the admissions process would cripple the profession's ability to achieve racial and ethnic diversity. Preserving this diversity in medical school admissions programs is important for 4 major reasons (1) adequate representation among students and faculty of the diversity in US society is indispensable for quality medical education; (2) increasing the diversity of the physician workforce will improve access to health care for underserved populations; (3) increasing the diversity of the research workforce can accelerate advances in medical and public health research; and (4) diversity among managers of health care organizations makes good business sense. This article explores these reasons in detail, reviews the history and effectiveness of affirmative action in medical school admissions programs, and explains why alternatives to affirmative action are unworkable.

Race, Interests, and Beliefs About Affirmative Action

Studies of public opinion on affirmative action have focused heavily on the views of White Americans. Two contending schools of thought tend to concur that Whites generally oppose affirmative action, but sharply disagree over whether the hostility to affirmative action rests on cherished American values of individualism or on anti-Black racism. This article questions both perspectives and the assumptions about public opinion that they share. It is important to examine the views of Whites and of racial minority group members and to recognize that group interests play an important part in the politics affirmative action. The analysis focuses on beliefs about the effects of affirmative action. The results point to real but far from irreconcilable race-based differences in opinion, a clear dependence of Whites' views on perceived threats from Blacks, and no influence of individualism on Whites' beliefs about the effects of affirmative action. The research suggests ways of moving beyond the political stalemate of opposing claims to moral virtue in the debate over affirmative action.

Affirmative action: does it really work?

Executive Overview The article examines the effectiveness of affirmative action in dealing with racial and sexual discrimination in the workplace. It states that there has been considerable debate about the effectiveness of both affirmative action and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Act. It comments on identity-conscious structures which target special programs that assist protected classes of employees, including special mentoring programs for female executives and more aggressive recruiting policies for minority executives. It suggests that minority groups dislike these structures due to beliefs that it promotes unqualified and incompetent people instead of capable minorities.

The effects of affirmative action on the female beneficiary

AbstractAttention is often focused on the economic and legal aspects of affirmative action rather than the policy's impact on its beneficiaries. The purpose of this article is to integrate the research findings on the effects of preferential treatment on women in organizations and to suggest solutions for some of the problems identified. First, the article explores the impact of preferential treatment on other people's perceptions of the female beneficiary and on the way the beneficiary views herself and the employing organization. Next, strategies for providing a supportive organizational environment for affirmative action beneficiaries are presented. The benefits that may result from implementing these strategies are also discussed.

The Good Worker: Race and Gender in a 1970s Southern City

By the end of the 1970s, the effort to end employment discrimination in the South by means of affirmative action was directed toward women as well as blacks. This study, based on interviews with owners or personnel managers in 29 local or national manufacturing firms in a medium-sized city, reveals that those selecting entry-level operatives do so in terms of an elaborated mental image of the “good worker.” Essentially, the ideal worker is acquiescent as well as ever-present. The race and gender components and implications of the image tended to undermine the intent and effect of affirmative action in jobs that had few qualifications but many applicants. Almost all of those actually hired were previously known to the employer. In this context, some degree of racial integration occurred, while a high degree of gender segregation continued. Of interest from the vantage point of today, at no time was age discrimination a consideration. We conclude by noting the difficulty of altering the employer's need for control as expressed by insuring a compliant workforce.