Data and Code for: Affirmative Action and Pre-College Human Capital

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Mitra Akhtari, AirBnB; Natalie Bau, UCLA; Jean-William Laliberte, University of Calgary

Version: View help for Version V1

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data			02/21/2023 07:25:PM
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README.docx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document	36.3 KB	02/21/2023 02:25:PM
README.pdf	application/pdf	337.6 KB	02/21/2023 02:25:PM
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license.txt	text/plain	150 bytes	02/21/2023 02:25:PM

Project Description

Summary: Racial affirmative action policies are widespread in college admissions. Yet, evidence on their effects before college is limited. Using four data sets, we study a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reinstated affirmative action in three states. Using nationwide SAT data for difference-in-differences and synthetic control analyses, we separately identify the aggregate effects of affirmative action for whites and underrepresented minorities. Using statewide Texas administrative data, we measure the effect of affirmative action on racial gaps across the pre-treatment test score distribution. When affirmative action is reinstated, racial gaps in SAT scores, grades, attendance, and college applications fall. Average SAT scores for both whites and minorities increase, suggesting that reductions in racial gaps are driven by improvements in minorities' outcomes. Increases in minorities' pre-college human capital and college applications are concentrated in the top half of the test score distribution among students with the largest increases in their returns to human capital investment in college admissions following the policy.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Affirmative action; Education; racial inequality

JEL Classification:
      I24 Education and Inequality
      I28 Education: Government Policy
      J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

Geographic Coverage: United States, Texas

Universe: TEA data: all Texas students
SAT data: Aggregates created from all US test-takers

Data Type(s): administrative records data; census/enumeration data; observational data

Methodology

Data Source: SAT data: Data assembled from public reports released by the College Board
TEA data: Aggregates created from administrative data from the Texas Education Agency
ACS Data: IPUMS USA

Unit(s) of Observation: individual, state-race-year

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Published Versions

V1 [2023-12-11]

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