Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/283710 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2023/14
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Despite the good intentions behind affirmative action (AA) policies to mediate 'horizontal inequalities' between ethnic groups, the evidence on their effectiveness remains open to debate. In this study, we conduct a systematic review of the literature with global scope, to add new clarity on whether positive or negative effects prevail according to the available quantitative evidence and the strength and generalizability of this evidence. Overall, close to two-thirds of the 194 reviewed studies find a dominantly positive effect. However, three limiting factors condition this aggregate assessment. First, while AA generally improves the numerical representation of target groups, the qualitative implications of these policies are more ambiguous. Second, the concentration of the evidence on a limited set of country cases may distort our perception of the effectiveness of AA. Third, causal evidence on the impact of AA is generally scarce and studies applying quasi-experimental research methods generally arrive at a more positive assessment than studies applying less rigorous methods.
Subjects: 
affirmative action
systematic review
horizontal inequalities
ethnic groups
JEL: 
I38
J15
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-322-2
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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