Editing Affirmative action (section)

=== Mismatching ===
''Mismatching'' is the proposed negative effect affirmative action has when it places a student into a college that is too difficult for them based on meeting quotas, which may increase the chance they drop out or fail the course, thus hurting the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action. According to this theory, in the absence of affirmative action, a student may be admitted to a college that matches their academic ability and therefore has a better chance of graduating.<ref name="latimes.com">[https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-sander26sep26,0,3998908.story?coll=la-opinion-center Does affirmative action hurt minorities?], ''Los Angeles Times'', 26 September 2007</ref><ref name="Quotas on trial">[http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell010803.asp Quotas on trial], by Thomas Sowell, 8 January 2003</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last1=Heriot |first1=Gail L. |author-link1=Gail Heriot |title=Want to Be a Doctor? A Scientist? An Engineer? An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances |journal=Engage |date=December 2010 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=18–25 |ssrn=3112683 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.3112683 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=murray/><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121004223026/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/the-painful-truth-about-affirmative-action/263122/ The Painful Truth About Affirmative Action], The Atlantic, 2 October 2012</ref> 

In 2017, researcher Andrew J. Hill found that affirmative action bans resulted in a reduction in minority students completing four-year STEM degrees, and suggests this indicates that the mismatch hypothesis is unfounded. He says this is evidence that affirmative action may be effective in "some circumstances", such as in encouraging greater minority engagement in STEM degrees.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=Andrew J. |title=State affirmative action bans and STEM degree completions |journal=Economics of Education Review |date=1 April 2017 |volume=57 |pages=31–40 |doi=10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.01.003 }}</ref> In 2020, researcher Zachary Bleemer found that an affirmative action ban in California (Prop 209) had resulted in average wage drops of 5% annually among underrepresented minorities aged 24–34 in STEM industries, especially effecting Hispanic people.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Bleemer |first1=Zachary |title=Affirmative Action, Mismatch, and Economic Mobility after California's Proposition 209 |date=2020 |ssrn=3484530 }}</ref><ref name="auto"/>

In 2007, [[Gail Heriot]], a professor of law at the [[University of San Diego]] and a member of the [[U.S. Commission on Civil Rights]], discussed the evidence in support of mismatching in law courses. She pointed to a study by [[Richard Sander]] which suggests there were 7.9% fewer Black attorneys than if there had been no affirmative action.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Heriot |first1=Gail |title=Affirmative Action Backfires |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118792252575507571 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=24 August 2007 }}</ref> Sander suggests that mismatching meant Black students were more likely to drop out of law school and fail bar exams.<ref name=Sander>{{cite journal |last1=Sander |first1=Richard H. |title=A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools |journal=Stanford Law Review |date=2004 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=367–483 |url=https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2010/01/Sander.pdf |jstor=40040209 }}</ref> Sander's paper on mismatching has been criticized by several law professors, including [[Ian Ayres]] and Richard Brooks from Yale, who argue that eliminating affirmative action would actually reduce the number of
Black lawyers by 12.7%. Furthermore, they suggest that students attending higher ranking colleges do better than those who don't.<ref>{{cite web|last=Fisman |first=Ray |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2005/04/sanding_down_sander.html |title=Slate.com |publisher=Slate.com |access-date=11 April 2012|date=29 April 2005 }}</ref> A 2008 study by [[Jesse Rothstein]] and Albert H. Yoon said Sander's results were "plausible", but said that eliminating affirmative action would "lead to a 63 percent decline in black matriculants at all law schools and a 90 percent decline at elite law schools". They dismissed the mismatch theory, concluding that "one cannot credibly invoke mismatch effects to argue that there are no benefits" to affirmative action.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/03/affirm | title=Attacking the 'Mismatch' Critique of Affirmative Action | work=Inside Higher Education | date=3 September 2008 | access-date=27 January 2016 | author=Jaschik, Scott | archive-date=13 December 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213085052/https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/03/affirm | url-status=dead }}</ref> In a 2016 review of previous studies by [[Peter Arcidiacono]] and Michael Lovenheim, they suggested that more African-American students attending less-selective schools would significantly improve first-attempt pass rates at the [[State bar association|state bar]], but cautioned that such improvements could be outweighed by decreases in law school attendance.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arcidiacono |first1=Peter |last2=Lovenheim |first2=Michael |title=Affirmative Action and the Quality–Fit Trade-off |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |date=1 March 2016 |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=3–51 |doi=10.1257/jel.54.1.3 |s2cid=1876963 }}</ref>

A 2011 study of data held by Duke University said there was no evidence of mismatch, and proposed that mismatch could only occur if a selective school possessed private information about students' prospects at the college which it failed to share. Providing such information to prospective students would avoid mismatch because the students could choose another school that was a better match.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arcidiacono |first1=Peter |last2=Aucejo |first2=Esteban M. |last3=Fang |first3=Hanming |last4=Spenner |first4=Kenneth I. |title=Does affirmative action lead to mismatch? A new test and evidence |journal=Quantitative Economics |date=November 2011 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=303–333 |doi=10.3982/QE83 |doi-access=free }}</ref> A 2016 study on affirmative action in India said there was no evidence for the mismatching hypothesis.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bagde |first1=Surendrakumar |last2=Epple |first2=Dennis |last3=Taylor |first3=Lowell |title=Does Affirmative Action Work? Caste, Gender, College Quality, and Academic Success in India |journal=American Economic Review |date=1 June 2016 |volume=106 |issue=6 |pages=1495–1521 |doi=10.1257/aer.20140783 |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=_ipe5iZhjGakTC0SaPxwDx2piOS0fkOa }}</ref>