The inelastic demand for affirmative action

Abstract

We study the role of financial incentives in driving support for affirmative action (AA) in a series of online experiments. Participants act as employers deciding whether to use AA in hiring. We implement three treatments to disentangle AA preferences stemming from perceived gender differences in productivity, perceived effects of AA on productivity, or other costs of AA for employers. Around 1/3 of employers consistently implement AA, and we do not find any significant difference across treatments, despite successfully altering beliefs about productivity differences. Our results suggest that AA choice reflects a more intrinsic and inelastic preference for advancing female candidates.