Leonard, Jonathan S. 1984. “Antidiscrimination or Reverse Discrimination: The Impact of Changing Demographics, Title VII, and Affirmative Action on Productivity.” Journal of Human Resources 19(2):145-174.

This study estimates the changes over time in the relative productivities of minorities and females. I find no significant evidence that the productivity of minorities or females decreased relative to that of white males as relative minority and female employment increased during the 1960s and 1970s. This study also compares the impact of Title VII and affirmative action and presents evidence that Title VII litigation has played a significant role in increasing black employment. This suggests that the employment of minorities and females has not entailed large efficiency costs and that Title VII litigation has had some success in fighting racial discrimination.

The author is on the faculty of the School of Business Administration, and the Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley. I thank Richard Freeman and Zvi Griliches for their advice. I also thank Chris Maxwell, Charles Brown, and the referees for their useful comments and the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies for support of this research through a Stouffer Fellowship.

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US ISSN 0022-166X

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