Affirmative Action Debate and Economics
Yuching Lin
ECON 395
The Affirmative Action Debate Affirmative Action has recently become the center of a major public debate in the United States, which has led to the emergence of numerous studies on its efficiency, costs, and benefits. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ended wage and employment discrimination based on gender and race, significantly decreasing the gap between minorities and non-minorities. Minorities made major progress from the 1960s up through the early 1970s due to Affirmative Action (Jones, Jr., 1985). However, for the past few decades, the progress that minorities have made in terms of income, employment and education has largely stagnated. California, Michigan, Nebraska, and Washington State have recently banned racial advantage in employment and college admissions, and Proposition 209 of California has disallowed the preferential treatment of minorities, with opponents of Affirmative Action lobbying for more widespread bans on similar policies while supporters argue fiercely against the removal of Affirmative Action policies. As can be seen, Affirmative Action’s status in the United States now is very dynamic due to shifting court decisions and policy plans.
Additionally, returns to education have been increasing in recent decades, and as a result, income inequality has also increased – the growing demand for highly skilled workers (workers with high levels of post-secondary education) and the stagnancy of American education (with the added fact that high quality colleges have become even higher quality and even more selective while lower tier colleges have decreased in quality) has led to ever-increasing wages for the highly skilled. This “Skill Biased Technological Change” has led to a widening income gap between the rich and the poor.
Naturally, this considerably affects black and Hispanic minorities, who are more likely than non-minorities to be part of the working class or below the poverty
ECON 395
The Affirmative Action Debate Affirmative Action has recently become the center of a major public debate in the United States, which has led to the emergence of numerous studies on its efficiency, costs, and benefits. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ended wage and employment discrimination based on gender and race, significantly decreasing the gap between minorities and non-minorities. Minorities made major progress from the 1960s up through the early 1970s due to Affirmative Action (Jones, Jr., 1985). However, for the past few decades, the progress that minorities have made in terms of income, employment and education has largely stagnated. California, Michigan, Nebraska, and Washington State have recently banned racial advantage in employment and college admissions, and Proposition 209 of California has disallowed the preferential treatment of minorities, with opponents of Affirmative Action lobbying for more widespread bans on similar policies while supporters argue fiercely against the removal of Affirmative Action policies. As can be seen, Affirmative Action’s status in the United States now is very dynamic due to shifting court decisions and policy plans.
Additionally, returns to education have been increasing in recent decades, and as a result, income inequality has also increased – the growing demand for highly skilled workers (workers with high levels of post-secondary education) and the stagnancy of American education (with the added fact that high quality colleges have become even higher quality and even more selective while lower tier colleges have decreased in quality) has led to ever-increasing wages for the highly skilled. This “Skill Biased Technological Change” has led to a widening income gap between the rich and the poor.
Naturally, this considerably affects black and Hispanic minorities, who are more likely than non-minorities to be part of the working class or below the poverty
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