Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/33452 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1674
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Proposition 209, enacted in California in 1996 and made effective the following year, ended state affirmative action programs not only in education, but also for public employment and government contracting. This paper uses CPS data and triple difference techniques to take advantage of the natural experiment presented by this change in state law to gauge the labor market impacts of ending affirmative action programs. Employment among women and minorities dropped sharply, a change that was nearly completely explained by a decline in participation rather than by increases in unemployment. This decline suggests that either affirmative action programs in California had been inefficient or that they failed to create lasting change in prejudicial attitudes.
Subjects: 
economics of gender and minorities
affirmative action
Proposition 209
discrimination
JEL: 
J71
J78
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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