Asian American Discrimination in Harvard Admissions
Peter Arcidiacono, Josh Kinsler, Tyler Ransom
NBER Working Paper No. 27068
Issued in April 202
we show that there is a substantial penalty against Asian Americans in admissions with limited scope for omitted variables to overturn the result.
This is because (i) Asian Americans are substantially stronger than whites on the observables associated with admissions and (ii) the richness of the data yields a model that predicts admissions extremely well.
Our preferred model shows that Asian Americans would be admitted at a rate 19% higher absent this penalty.
Controlling for one of the primary channels through which Asian American applicants are discriminated against--the personal rating--cuts the Asian American penalty by less than half, still leaving a substantial penalty.