🤖 AI Summary
This study evaluates whether France’s socioeconomic quota policy for scholarship recipients—introduced in 2018 on the Parcoursup platform and explicitly race-neutral—can serve as an effective alternative to race-conscious affirmative action in increasing access for socioeconomically disadvantaged students to highly selective higher education programs. Using a difference-in-differences design combined with matching estimators, the analysis assesses causal impacts on admission outcomes, waitlist ranking, and application behavior. Results show that the quota significantly improves scholarship recipients’ relative positioning on waitlists and increases their probability of admission to more selective programs; however, it does not yield statistically significant gains in final enrollment rates, nor does it alter application strategies or preparatory effort. This paper provides the first causal evidence on socioeconomic-based quotas, demonstrating that such policies can enhance socioeconomic diversity within elite institutions without invoking race-sensitive criteria—thereby offering a novel, legally robust paradigm for inclusive admissions policy design.
📝 Abstract
Since 2018, France's centralized higher education platform, Parcoursup, has implemented quotas for scholarship recipients, with program-specific thresholds based on the applicant's composition. Using difference-in-differences methods, I find these quotas enabled scholarship students to access more selective programs, though intention-to-treat effects remain modest (maximum 0.10 SD). Matching methods reveal that the policy improved the scholarship students' waiting list positions relative to those of comparable non-scholarship peers. However, I detect no robust or lasting effects on the extensive margin of higher education access. Despite high policy salience, quotas did not affect the application behavior or pre-college investment of scholarship students, even among high achievers. These findings align with research on affirmative action bans, suggesting that such policies primarily benefit disadvantaged students who access selective institutions, rather than expanding total enrollment. Nevertheless, scholarship quotas demonstrate that race-neutral alternatives can effectively promote socioeconomic diversity in prestigious programs.