Does Affirmative Action Work? Caste, Gender, College Quality, and Academic Success in India

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bagde, Surendrakumar; Epple, Dennis; Taylor, Lowell
• 署名单位: Carnegie Mellon University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20140783
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1495-1521
• 关键词: impact; admissions; policies; mismatch; MARKET; RACE

摘要

Public policy in modern India features affirmative action programs intended to reduce inequality that stems from a - centuries-old caste structure and history of disparate treatment by gender. We study the effects of one such affirmative action program: an admissions policy that fixes percentage quotas, common across more than 200 engineering colleges, for disadvantaged castes and for women. We show that the program increases college attendance of targeted students, particularly at relatively higher-quality institutions. An important concern is that affirmative action might harm intended beneficiaries by placing them in academic programs for which they are ill-prepared. We find no evidence of such adverse impacts.