TY  - JOUR
AU  - Leonard,Jonathan S.
TI  - Affirmative Action as Earnings Redistribution:  The Targeting of Compliance Reviews
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 1328
PY  - 1984
Y2  - April 1984
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1328
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1328.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jonathan S.. Leonard
Graduate School of Business
350 Barrows Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA  94720
Tel: 415/642-7048
E-Mail: leonard@haas.berkeley.edu
AB  - Affirmative action may be broadly conceived of as pursuing either the goal of reducing discrimination or that of redistributing jobs and earnings. I attempt to infer the ends of affirmative action policy by analyzing the historical record of enforcement. Optimal enforcement strategies are developed for both the anti-discrimination and the earnings redistribution models, and then compared with new data on the actual targeting of affirmative action compliance reviews during the late 1970s. I find that establishments with very low proportions of minority or female workers are not significantly more likely to be reviewed, but that white-collar intensive establishments are more likely to be reviewed. This indicates the shortcomings of the anti-discrimination model inexplaining the OFCCP's behavior, and suggests the potential usefulness of the earnings redistribution model.
ER  -