Inferring Trade-Offs in University Admissions: Evidence from Cambridge

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bhattacharya, Debopam; Shvets, Julia
• 署名单位: University of Cambridge
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/730544
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 3737-3784
• 关键词: motor-vehicle searches; affirmative-action; racial bias

摘要

How do elite universities balance diversity and academics during admissions? We develop a theory-based empirical framework to identify and quantify this potential trade-off, using postentry outcomes. We apply this to matched admission and exam-performance data from Cambridge. Comparing first- versus second-round admits from different demographic groups yields bounds on the trade-off magnitude, which (a) hold irrespective of whether we observe all applicant characteristics and (b) require no information on rejected applicants. We find robust evidence of trade-off between gender balance and future performance in math-intensive subjects but not for state/private school students or for gender in competitive nonmathematical disciplines.