Volume 20, Number 1 (Winter) 1985
Leonard, Jonathan S. 1985. "What Promises Are Worth: The Impact of Affirmative Action Goals." Journal of Human Resources 20(1): 20.
Affirmative action goals and timetables have been criticized by some as being ineffective and by others as being a system of rigid quotas. In this paper I present estimates of the impact of detailed regulatory pressure on goals and on subsequent demographics. While the goals are inflated and are not being fulfilled with the rigidity one might expect of quotas, the establishments that promise to employ more minorities and females do actually employ more in subsequent years. While the detailed enforcement tools are of doubtful utility, the system of affirmative action goals does appear to have promoted increases in minority and female employment at reviewed establishments.
The author is Assistant Professor. Institute of Industrial Relations and
School of Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley.
I thank participants in the UCLA Labor Workshop for their
comments. This research was supported in part by the Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy of the U.S. Department of Labor, and by the School of
Business Administration at Berkeley. Points of view or opinions stated in this
article do not necessarily represent the official position or policy of the
Department of Labor.
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