TY  - JOUR
AU  - Holzer,Harry J.
AU  - Neumark,David
TI  - What Does Affirmative Action Do?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6605
PY  - 1998
Y2  - June 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6605
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6605.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Harry J. Holzer
Georgetown University
3520 Prospect Street NW,4th Floor
Washington, DC  20007
E-Mail: hjh4@georgetown.edu

David Neumark
Department of Economics
University of California at Irvine
3151 Social Science Plaza
Irvine, CA  92697
Tel: 949-824-8496
Fax: 949/824-2182
E-Mail: dneumark@uci.edu
AB  - We use data from a survey of employers to investigate how Affirmative Action in recruiting and hiring influences hiring practices, personnel policies, and ultimately employment outcomes.  Our results show that Affirmative Action increases the number of recruitment and screening practices used by employers, raises their willingness to hire stigmatized applicants, increases the number of minority or female applicants as well as employees, and increases employers' tendencies to provide training and to formally evaluate employees. When Affirmative Action is used in recruiting, it does not lead to lower credentials or performance of women and minorities hired.  When it is also used in hiring, it yields female and minority employees whose credentials are somewhat weaker, though performance generally is not.  Over than, the more intensive search, evaluation, and training that accompany Affirmative Action appear to offset any tendencies of the policy to lead to hiring of less-qualified or less-productive women and minorities.
ER  -