Monday, January 11, 2010

Assessing the Impact of Eliminating Affirmative Action in Higher Education

Inside Higher Ed
January 11, 2010

A study in the new issue of the Journal of Labor Economics is the latest to project declines in black and Latino enrollment -- especially at certain institutions -- if all colleges had to use race-neutral admissions policies. The new study is consistent with past analyses in finding that the overall decline would be modest (a 2 percent drop at four-year colleges and universities), but that it would be more significant (a 10 percent drop) at the institutions with the most competitive admissions. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/11/qt#217227

Chicago Journal of Labor Economics
Jessica S. Howell,
California State University, Sacramento

Abstract:
This research examines the determinants of the match between high school seniors and postsecondary institutions in the United States. I model college application decisions as a nonsequential search problem and specify a unified structural model of college application, admission, and matriculation decisions that are all functions of unobservable individual heterogeneity. The results indicate that black and Hispanic representation at all 4‐year colleges is predicted to decline modestly—by 2%—if race‐neutral college admissions policies are mandated nationwide. However, race‐neutral admissions are predicted to decrease minority representation at the most selective 4‐year institutions by 10%. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/648415

For a full copy of the abstracted study, click here: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/h/howellj/papers/Howell_JOLE_identifyinginfo.pdf

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