Affirmative Action and Racial Segregation

Prior research suggests that statewide affirmative action bans reduce minority representation at selective colleges while leaving overall minority college enrollment unchanged. The effect of these bans on racial segregation across colleges, as measured by standard exposure and dissimilarity indexes, has not yet been estimated directly and is theoretically ambiguous due to a Ushaped relationship between minority enrollment and college selectivity. This paper uses variation in the timing of affirmative action bans across states to estimate their effects on racial segregation, finding that affirmative action bans have in some cases increased segregation across colleges but in other cases have actually reduced it. In particular, early affirmative action bans in states with highly selective public universities appear to be associated with less segregation, whereas more recent affirmative action bans appear to be associated with more segregation.