Affirmative actions under the Boston mechanism

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1630621 (Table of Contents)

We consider three popular a rmative action policies in school choice: quota-based, priority-based, and reserve-based a rmative actions. The Boston mechanism (BM) is responsive to the latter two policies in that a stronger priority-based or reserve-based a rmative action makes some minority student better o . However, a stronger quotabased a rmative action may yield a Pareto inferior outcome for the minority under the BM. These positive results disappear once we look for a stronger welfare consequence on the minority or focus on BM equilibrium outcomes.