Advantage
Affirmative Action Bans and the "Chilling Effect"
Kate Antonovics & Richard Sander
American Law and Economics Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines whether California's Proposition 209, which led to the 1998 ban on the use of racial preferences in admissions at the University of California (UC) system, lowered the value that underrepresented minorities placed on attending UC schools. In particular, we look for evidence of a chilling effect in minority yield rates (the probability of enrolling in a UC school conditional on being accepted) after Proposition 209. Using individual-level data on every freshman applicant to the UC system from 1995 to 2000, we find no evidence that yield rates fell for minorities relative to other students after Proposition 209, even after controlling for changes in student characteristics and changes in the set of UC schools to which students were admitted. In fact, our analysis suggests Proposition 209 had a modest "warming effect". We investigate and rule out the possibility that this warming effect was driven by changes in the selection of students who applied to the UC, changes in financial aid or changes in minorities' college opportunities outside the UC system. Instead, we present evidence consistent with the idea that Proposition 209 increased the signaling value of attending UC schools for minorities.
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The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth
Chang-Tai Hsieh et al.
NBER Working Paper, January 2013
Abstract:
Over the last 50 years, there has been a remarkable convergence in the occupational distribution between white men, women, and blacks. We measure the macroeconomic consequences of this convergence through the prism of a Roy model of occupational choice in which women and blacks face frictions in the labor market and in the accumulation of human capital. The changing frictions implied by the observed occupational convergence account for 15 to 20 percent of growth in aggregate output per worker since 1960.
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A Stereotype Threat Account of Boys' Academic Underachievement
Bonny Hartley & Robbie Sutton
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies examined the role of stereotype threat in boys' academic underachievement. Study 1 (children aged 4-10, n = 238) showed that girls from age 4 years and boys from age 7 years believed, and thought adults believed, that boys are academically inferior to girls. Study 2 manipulated stereotype threat, informing children aged 7-8 years (n = 162) that boys tend to do worse than girls at school. This manipulation hindered boys' performance on a reading, writing, and math test, but did not affect girls' performance. Study 3 counteracted stereotype threat, informing children aged 6-9 years (n = 184) that boys and girls were expected to perform similarly. This improved the performance of boys and did not affect that of girls.
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An Examination of Stereotype Threat Effects on Girls' Mathematics Performance
Colleen Ganley et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Stereotype threat has been proposed as 1 potential explanation for the gender difference in standardized mathematics test performance among high-performing students. At present, it is not entirely clear how susceptibility to stereotype threat develops, as empirical evidence for stereotype threat effects across the school years is inconsistent. In a series of 3 studies, with a total sample of 931 students, we investigated stereotype threat effects during childhood and adolescence. Three activation methods were used, ranging from implicit to explicit. Across studies, we found no evidence that the mathematics performance of school-age girls was impacted by stereotype threat. In 2 of the studies, there were gender differences on the mathematics assessment regardless of whether stereotype threat was activated. Potential reasons for these findings are discussed, including the possibility that stereotype threat effects only occur in very specific circumstances or that they are in fact occurring all the time. We also address the possibility that the literature regarding stereotype threat in children is subject to publication bias.
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Marcus Winters et al.
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
We utilize information from a rich administrative panel dataset following the universe of test-taking public school students in Florida over a period of five years to estimate the relationship between same-gender teacher assignment and student achievement. We estimate how a student's achievement changes as he/she is assigned to teachers of different genders throughout his/her academic career, holding constant both observed and unobserved factors related to academic outcomes. We also provide estimates from models that evaluate how the relative performance of male and female student assigned to the same teacher or in the same classroom relates to the gender of the teacher. We find no statistically distinguishable relationship between same-gender teacher assignments and student math or reading achievement in elementary school. We find a statistically significant relationship between being assigned to a female teacher and student achievement in middle and high school, however the magnitude of the effect is small.
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Christopher Cornwell, David Mustard & Jessica Van Parys
Journal of Human Resources, Winter 2013, Pages 236-264
Abstract:
Using data from the 1998-99 ECLS-K cohort, we show that the grades awarded by teachers are not aligned with test scores. Girls in every racial category outperform boys on reading tests, while boys score at least as well on math and science tests as girls. However, boys in all racial categories across all subject areas are not represented in grade distributions where their test scores would predict. Boys who perform equally as well as girls on reading, math, and science tests are graded less favorably by their teachers, but this less favorable treatment essentially vanishes when noncognitive skills are taken into account. For some specifications there is evidence of a grade "bonus" for boys with test scores and behavior like their girl counterparts.
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David Sherman et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
To the extent that stereotype and identity threat undermine academic performance, social psychological interventions that lessen threat could buffer threatened students and improve performance. Two studies, each featuring a longitudinal field experiment in a mixed-ethnicity middle school, examined whether a values affirmation writing exercise could attenuate the achievement gap between Latino American and European American students. In Study 1, students completed multiple self-affirmation (or control) activities as part of their regular class assignments. Latino American students, the identity threatened group, earned higher grades in the affirmation than control condition, whereas White students were unaffected. The effects persisted 3 years and, for many students, continued into high school by lifting their performance trajectory. Study 2 featured daily diaries to examine how the affirmation affected psychology under identity threat, with the expectation that it would shape students' narratives of their ongoing academic experience. By conferring a big-picture focus, affirmation was expected to broaden construals, prevent daily adversity from being experienced as identity threat, and insulate academic motivation from identity threat. Indeed, affirmed Latino American students not only earned higher grades than nonaffirmed Latino American students but also construed events at a more abstract than concrete level and were less likely to have their daily feelings of academic fit and motivation undermined by identity threat. Discussion centers on how social-psychological processes propagate themselves over time and how timely interventions targeting these processes can promote well-being and achievement.
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Race and the Likelihood of Managing in Major League Baseball
Brian Volz
Journal of Labor Research, March 2013, Pages 30-51
Abstract:
The impact of race on the likelihood of former Major League Baseball players becoming managers is analyzed using data from 1975 to 2008. The multivariate probit model presented controls for the effects of race, performance, star status, education, coaching, minor league managing, and playing experience. Marginally significant evidence is found that black former players are 74 % less likely to become managers at the major league level than observationally equivalent white former players. It is also observed that former catchers and shortstops are the most likely to become coaches or managers. Historically, black players have been underrepresented at the catcher and shortstop positions and overrepresented at the outfield positions. This provides evidence that historical differences in position played may have contributed to the relatively small number of black managers in Major League Baseball. Significant evidence is found that Hispanic former players are 66 and 69 % less likely to coach in the major leagues and manage in the minor leagues than observationally equivalent white former players. Coaching and minor league managing experience increase the likelihood of managing in the major leagues. Therefore, discrimination at these levels may lead to a lower number of Hispanic major league managers. It should be noted that while this study does control for education it does not directly control for English language skills. If Hispanic players are less likely to speak English than white players this may contribute to the negative effect found in this analysis. It is also shown that all star status reduces the likelihood of coaching or managing while seasons spent in the majors increase the likelihood of coaching or managing. This implies that players with long but unexceptional careers are most likely to become managers. This finding may reflect the greater opportunities available to star players after retirement.
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Brinck Kerr et al.
Urban Affairs Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
We develop a revised theory of political influence that addresses the relationship between minority political representation and administrative-level municipal employment patterns among African-Americans and Latinos in U.S. cities. We conduct pooled time-series analysis on employment data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for years 1987 through 2001. We find that the dynamics of political representation are different for African-Americans and Latinos. Cities with African-American mayors or city managers tend to have more African-Americans serving in administrative positions in municipal agencies. Although this mayoral/city manager effect is not found for Latino employment, more Latino council members lead to more Latino administrators. We also find that African-American employment gains resulting from political representation are more likely to occur in agencies that have the most policy relevance for African-Americans, yet this is not the case for Latino employment. Our results suggest strongly that political processes - conceptualized as the relationship between political leadership and administrative-level hiring and retention - work differently for African-Americans than they do for Latinos.
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Appeasement: Whites' Strategic Support for Affirmative Action
Rosalind Chow, Brian Lowery & Caitlin Hogan
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, March 2013, Pages 332-345
Abstract:
This article explores the possibility that dominant-group members will attempt to appease subordinate groups to protect the hierarchy. In four studies, we find that (a) prohierarchy Whites perceive more intergroup threat when they believe ethnic minorities hold Whites in low regard, (b) prohierarchy Whites respond to ethnic minorities' low regard for Whites by increasing their support for redistributive policies (e.g., affirmative action), (c) the increase in support only occurs when prohierarchy Whites perceive the hierarchy to be unstable, and (d) prohierarchy Whites perceive the hierarchy to be more stable if they believe Whites support redistributive policies. These results suggest that prohierarchy dominant-group members' support for redistributive policies can stem from a concern about maintaining the hierarchical status quo, and provides evidence that support for redistributive policies can be a hierarchy-enhancing strategy.
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Race, Secondary School Course of Study, and College Type
Elizabeth Stearns, Nandan Jha & Stephanie Potochnick
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Race shapes many aspects of students' high school experiences relevant to post-secondary educational attainment. We examine the racially-specific effects of high school course of study on type of college attended, whether two-year or four-year, using NELS 1988-2000 and a comprehensive measure of course intensity derived from students' patterns of course-taking. Results include the presence of racially-specific effects of high school course of study, with racial/ethnic minority students in the middle course intensity ranges more likely to attend four-year college than Whites with similar coursework. Using a theory of racialized meritocracy, we also find that educational expectations mediate the relationships among race, course of study, and post-secondary attendance differently for students of different racial groups, such that they play a larger role in mediating the relationship between course of study and post-secondary attendance for White students.
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Evaluating the contributions of members of mixed-sex work teams: Race and gender matter
Monica Biernat & Amanda Sesko
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, May 2013, Pages 471-476
Abstract:
Gender- and race-bias have often been studied as separate phenomena, but examining intersections of race and gender is critical given that people always belong to many social categories simultaneously. In two studies, we focus on the evaluation of mixed-sex work teams, and examine how race and gender of team members affect the evaluations they receive. Participants read about a pair of employees assigned to work together on a "masculine" task on which they either succeeded (Study 1) or failed (Study 2). Mixed-sex teams included White pairs, Black pairs, or mixed race pairs (White woman-Black man; Black woman-White man). In both studies, pro-male gender bias was evident only in the White male-White female work pair. We suggest that rather than suffering the double jeopardy of dual subordinate identities, Black women were buffered from the effects of gender bias by virtue of their non-prototypicality or invisibility.
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"Don't Stigmatize": The Ironic Effects of Equal Opportunity Guidelines in Interviews
Juan Madera & Michelle Hebl
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, January/February 2013, Pages 123-130
Abstract:
The purpose of the current study was to examine how staffing policies (identity-conscious or identity-blind) and interview structure might lead to stigmatizing behavior, particularly subtle behavior that is not illegal. In a 2 (staffing policy: identity-conscious or identity-blind) × 2 (interview structure: structured or unstructured) factorial design, 87 participants interviewed a Black interviewee for an ostensible study on employment interviews and were led to believe they would interview a second Black interviewee. The results showed that participants guided by the identity-blind policy and using an unstructured interview format chose the largest social distance from Black interviewees in the subsequent interview.
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Colorism and School-to-Work and School-to-College Transitions of African American Adolescents
Igor Ryabov
Race and Social Problems, March 2013, Pages 15-27
Abstract:
Using multinomial logistic modeling, the current study estimated the impact of skin tone on school-to-work and school-to-college transitions of African American youths. The findings suggest that African American males with the lightest skin tone were more likely to find a job and to be in college than their co-racial peers with darker skin tones. The odds of finding a full-time job were also significantly higher for African American females with the lightest skin tone. Generally, the multivariate results reveal that among the effects examined in this study, the family background factors, marital status, prior achievement, and average school socioeconomic status matter the most.
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CEO gender and firm performance
Walayet Khan & João Paulo Vieito
Journal of Economics and Business, forthcoming
Abstract:
Based on a panel of US firms over the period of 1992 to 2004, we evaluated whether firms managed by female CEOs exhibit the same performance as firms managed by male CEOs. We also examined if the gender of the CEO affects the firm risk level, and if the compensation packages that boards give to female CEOs have less risky components than those given to male CEOs. Our results revealed new insights: on average, the gender of the CEO matters in terms of firm performance. When the CEO is a female, the firm risk level is smaller than when the CEO is a male. Another important finding is that boards are not attending to the risk aversion differences between male and female CEOs when they design the compensation packages, especially equity based compensation, which can be understood as an incentive to female CEOs to take risks.
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Geri Alumit Zeldes, Frederick Fico & Arvind Diddi
Mass Communication and Society, November/December 2012, Pages 831-851
Abstract:
TV evening news coverage of the 2008 presidential election by broadcast, cable, and public networks was predominately male and Caucasian in terms of reporters and sources. However, according to our content analysis of 888 campaign stories, viewers saw the least amount of source diversity if they watched the evening news on broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC. Cable networks FOX and CNN, and the PBS evening news had more female and non-White sources. This pattern also holds true for reporter use of nonpartisan sources. Findings on the 2008 election for the traditional broadcast networks are not consistent with those for the 2000 and 2004 elections, when female reporters at these networks had more female and nonpartisan sources in their election coverage than did their male colleagues. Reporters at PBS provided the greatest overall source diversity, regardless of their race or gender, compared to what was observed on broadcast and cable networks. Differences in the way reporters used women and non-White sources to cover the 2008 presidential race may be attributable to organizational factors.
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Understanding the Impact of Affirmative Action Bans in Different Graduate Fields of Study
Liliana Garces
American Educational Research Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the effects of affirmative action bans in four states (California, Florida, Texas, and Washington) on the enrollment of underrepresented students of color within six different graduate fields of study: the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, education, and humanities. Findings show that affirmative action bans have led to the greatest reductions in science-related fields of engineering, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. These declines pose serious long-term consequences for the United States since these fields provide specialized training critical to the nation's ability to compete effectively in a global market and for ensuring continued scientific and technological advancement.
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Magdalena Formanowicz et al.
European Journal of Social Psychology, February 2013, Pages 62-71
Abstract:
In many languages, feminization has been used as a strategy to make language more gender-fair, because masculine terms, even in a generic function, exhibit a male bias. Up to date, little is known about possible side effects of this language use, for example, in personnel selection. In three studies, conducted in Polish, we analyzed how a female applicant was evaluated in a recruitment process, depending on whether she was introduced with a feminine or masculine job title. To avoid influences from existing occupations and terms, we used fictitious job titles in Studies 1 and 2: diarolożka (feminine) and diarolog (masculine). In Study 3, we referred to existing occupations that varied in gender stereotypicality. In all studies, female applicants with a feminine job title were evaluated less favorably than both a male applicant (Study 1) and a female applicant with a masculine job title (Studies 1, 2, and 3). This effect was independent of the gender stereotypicality of the occupation (Study 3). Participants' political attitudes, however, moderated the effect: Conservatives devaluated female applicants with a feminine title more than liberals (Studies 2 and 3).
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Pauwke Berkers & Merel Eeckelaer
Journal of Gender Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
Combining insights from gender, popular music, and celebrity studies, this article addresses to what extent British broadsheets frame Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty differently with regard to their rock and roll lifestyle. Our content analyses of The Guardian and The Independent indicate clear gender differences. First, Doherty's excessive behavior is often framed in positive terms (rock and roll), while the media discuss Winehouse's conduct more negatively (rock and fall). Second, British newspaper journalists admire Doherty's courage to lead such a lifestyle, oftentimes justifying - or even negating - his behavior, arguing he is an independent individual or even a hero. Such adoration is absent when Winehouse's escapades are reported on; most articles treat her as a victim, expressing concern regarding her poor health. As such, our findings show how music journalists use relational complicit practices - admiration/justification/negation of male and victimization of female enactment of hegemonic masculinity - to maintain masculine monopoly over the archetypical rock and roll lifestyle.
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Lisa Edwards, Carwyn Jones & Charlene Weaving
Sport in Society, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper, we critically examine the moral outcry that greeted the Canadian women's ice hockey celebrations after they won gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in 2010. Stories of male athletes engaging in similar post game activities abound, but such incidents are rarely criticized or admonished. Celebrating victory with excessive drinking is simply customary in male sporting practices. In fact, such behaviour is usually celebrated as a ‘time-honoured tradition' within the sporting community. In this paper, we argue that there is a double standard at play that judges women more harshly than men when it comes to the kind of alcohol-related cultural practices commonplace in our society. In conclusion, we argue that if the cultural practices in question, binge drinking and so forth, are morally problematic, then they are equally so for men and women.
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Gender Wage Gaps, ‘Sticky Floors' and ‘Glass Ceilings' in Europe
Louis Christofides, Alexandros Polycarpou & Konstantinos Vrachimis
Labour Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We consider and attempt to understand the gender wage gap across 26 European countries, using 2007 data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions.4 The size of the gender wage gap varies considerably across countries, definitions of the gap, and selection-correction mechanisms. Most of the gap cannot be explained by the characteristics available in this data set. Quantile regressions show that, in a number of countries, the wage gap is wider at the top (‘glass ceilings') and/or at the bottom of the wage distribution (‘sticky floors'). We find larger mean/median gender gaps and more evidence of glass ceilings for full-time full-year employees, suggesting more female disadvantage in ‘better' jobs. These features may be related to country-specific policies that cannot be evaluated at the individual-country level, at a point in time. We use the cross-country variation in the unexplained wage gaps of this larger-than-usual sample of states to explore the influence of (i) country policies that reconcile work and family life and (ii) their wage-setting institutions. We find that country policies and institutions are related to features of their unexplained gender wage gaps in systematic, quantitatively important, ways.
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Bi-Polar: College Education and Loans to Small Businesses Headed by Black Females
John Gray
Review of Black Political Economy, September 2012, Pages 361-371
Abstract:
This paper uses the 1998 and 2003 Surveys of Small Business Finance (SSBF) to detail the recent experiences of black female headed small businesses (BFHBs) in the capital markets. It documents, a large disparity in the importance of a college education for black and non-black female headed businesses (NFHBs); that the race of a female headed business is an important factor in determining whether a loan is approved; and that although receiving a college education does not remove the cost BFHBs face due to their owner's race, it is significantly lower than that faced by their peers without a college educated owner. Together, this paper provides striking evidence of taste-based and statistical discrimination, both in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
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African Americans' pursuit of self-employment
Magnus Lofstrom & Timothy Bates
Small Business Economics, January 2013, Pages 73-86
Abstract:
We examine causes of black/white gaps in self-employment entry rates in the United States by recognizing that industry context heavily shapes impacts of owner resource endowments on the likelihood of successful entry. Barriers to entry, briefly stated, are high in some lines of business and low in others. We therefore proceed by explaining self-employment entry into separate subgroups of high- and low-barrier industries. Higher entry rates typifying whites, relative to African Americans, are traditionally interpreted as reflections of the former group's greater personal wealth and human-capital resources. This consensus view, however, is simplistic: personal wealth holdings have no positive explanatory power for predicting entry into low-barrier lines of business. Our findings demonstrate, furthermore, that high educational attainment is a strong, positive predictor of entry into high-barrier fields, but not into low-barrier industries. Because industry context indeed shapes entry patterns, "one-size-fits-all" econometric models commonly used to predict entry into self-employment fall short.
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Gregory Walton, Steven Spencer & Sam Erman
Social Issues and Policy Review, January 2013, Pages 1-35
Abstract:
We argue that in important circumstances meritocracy can be realized only through a specific form of affirmative action we call affirmative meritocracy. These circumstances arise because common measures of academic performance systematically underestimate the intellectual ability and potential of members of negatively stereotyped groups (e.g., non-Asian ethnic minorities, women in quantitative fields). This bias results not from the content of performance measures but from common contexts in which performance measures are assessed - from psychological threats like stereotype threat that are pervasive in academic settings, and which undermine the performance of people from negatively stereotyped groups. To overcome this bias, school and work settings should be changed to reduce stereotype threat. In such environments, admitting or hiring more members of devalued groups would promote meritocracy, diversity, and organizational performance. Evidence for this bias, its causes, magnitude, remedies, and implications for social policy and for law are discussed.