TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fryer,Roland G., Jr.
AU  - Loury,Glenn C.
TI  - Affirmative Action and Its Mythology
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11464
PY  - 2005
Y2  - July 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11464
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11464.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Roland G. Fryer, Jr
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 208
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/495-9592
Fax: 617/495-8570
E-Mail: rfryer@fas.harvard.edu

Glenn Loury
Department of Economics
Brown University
64 Waterman Street
Providence RI 02912
E-Mail: Glenn_Loury@brown.edu
AB  - For more than three decades, critics and supporters of affirmative action have fought for the moral high ground ­ through ballot initiatives and lawsuits, in state legislatures, and in varied courts of public opinion. The goal of this paper is to show the clarifying power of economic reasoning to dispel some myths and misconceptions in the racial affirmative action debates. We enumerate seven commonly held (but mistaken) views one often encounters in the folklore about affirmative action (affirmative action may involve goals and timelines, but definitely not quotas, e.g.). Simple economic arguments reveal these seven views to be more myth than fact.
ER  -