The effects of proposition 209 on college enrollment and graduation rates in California

IZA Logo
   

IZA Seminar

Place: Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 9, 53113 Bonn

Date: 15.05.2012, 12:15 - 13:30

   

Presentation by 

V. Joseph Hotz (Duke University)
   

Abstract:

Proposition 209 banned the use of racial preferences in admissions at public colleges in
California. Although enrollments for minorities fell post-Prop 209, two-thirds of the drop
came from the CSU system which consists primarily of non-selective institutions. More
notably, we find that minority graduation rates increased after Prop 209 was implemented, a
finding consistent with the argument that affirmative action bans result in better matching
of students to colleges. To address the robustness of the positive effects on graduation
and the role of matching, we analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the
University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. The positive Prop 209 effects
on minority graduation rates persist, even after controlling for observed and unobserved
qualifications of UC enrollees. We present evidence that certain institutions are better at
graduating more-prepared students while other institutions are better at graduating lessprepared
students and that these matching effects are particularly important for the bottom
tail of the qualification distribution. In terms of graduation rates, we find that Prop 209 led
to a more efficient sorting of minority students.

   
Download complete paper   
   
For more information, please contact seminar@iza.org