On the Equivalence of Two Competing Affirmative Actions in School Choice

TL;DR

This paper examines the conditions under which two different affirmative action policies in school choice, majority quota and minority reserve, produce identical outcomes, highlighting their equivalence in certain market scenarios.

Contribution

It demonstrates the outcome equivalence of two popular affirmative actions under specific market conditions using the student optimal stable mechanism.

Findings

Outcome equivalence holds in effectively competitive markets.

Outcome equivalence holds when many schools are present.

The policies generate identical matchings under these conditions.

Abstract

This note analyzes the outcome equivalence conditions of two popular affirmative action policies, majority quota and minority reserve, under the student optimal stable mechanism. These two affirmative actions generate an identical matching outcome, if the market either is effectively competitive or contains a sufficiently large number of schools.