Are Affirmative Action hires less qualified?: evidence from employer–employee data on new hires

Affirmative Action policies have always been controversial, largely because of the allegation that they cause employers to give preference in hiring to less-qualified minorities or females over more-qualified white males. Survey evidence suggests that, even among whites, there is widespread public support for outlawing employment discrimination and also for policies that compensate the past victims of discrimination through targeted education, job training, and recruitment efforts. At the same time, policies that give “preference” in employment (or university admissions) to less-qualified members of these groups are strongly opposed (e.g. Lipset and Schneider, 1978; Bobo and Smith, 1994).1