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Racial and low-income quotas in Brazilian universities: impact on academic performance

Claudia Bueno Rocha Vidigal (Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, USA)

Journal of Economic Studies

ISSN: 0144-3585

Article publication date: 8 January 2018

673

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of racial and low-income quotas on academic performance of students from public and private universities in Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach

Using propensity score matching applied to student-level data from the National Examination of Student Performance conducted in 2012; this paper identifies the impact of the quota policy on academic performance considering all Brazilian universities.

Findings

The results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in academic performance between students admitted under the racial quota and those who had the regular admission (non-quota students). The impact is positive, however, for students from the North region of Brazil and among those with very low family income, whereas a negative impact is observed for those from the Central-West region. In regard to the low-income quota, quota students perform worse than eligible non-quota students as their scores are, on average, 14 percent lower. Similar findings are observed when different subsamples are considered.

Originality/value

This paper’s main contribution is to provide a broader and more rigorous empirical approach than that presented by the existing literature in order to evaluate the impact of quota policies on academic achievement. Moreover, this study considers all Brazilian institutions whereas previous studies are limited to only one or a few universities.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the editor, Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee, and anonymous referees for helpful comments. Special thanks go to Deborah Levison, Marc Bellemare, Joe Ritter and Vinicius Vidigal.

Citation

Vidigal, C.B.R. (2018), "Racial and low-income quotas in Brazilian universities: impact on academic performance", Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 45 No. 1, pp. 156-176. https://doi.org/10.1108/JES-10-2016-0200

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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