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  3. American Economic Review
  4. March 2007
  5. The Effect of Court-Ordered Hiring Quotas on the Composition and Quality of Police

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

The Effect of Court-Ordered Hiring Quotas on the Composition and Quality of Police

  • Justin McCrary
American Economic Review
vol. 97, no. 1, March 2007
(pp. 318–353)
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Abstract

Arguably the most aggressive affirmative action program ever implemented in the United States was a series of court-ordered racial hiring quotas imposed on municipal police departments. My best estimate of the effect of court-ordered affirmative action on work-force composition is a 14-percentage-point gain in the fraction African American among newly hired officers. Evidence on police performance is mixed. Despite substantial black-white test score differences on police department entrance examinations, city crime rates appear unaffected by litigation. However, litigation lowers slightly both arrests per crime and the fraction black among serious arrestees. (JEL H76, J15, J78, K31)

Citation

McCrary, Justin. 2007. "The Effect of Court-Ordered Hiring Quotas on the Composition and Quality of Police." American Economic Review, 97 (1): 318–353. DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.1.318

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H76 State and Local Government: Other Expenditure Categories
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
  • J78 Labor Discrimination: Public Policy
  • K31 Labor Law
  • K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law