Econometrics in action: harvard Discrimination case - Part 1/?

Click here for a link to the expert witness report filed on behalf of Harvard by David Card (labor economist)

Click here for a link to the Judge's Opinion hosted on my Google Drive.


It's always refreshing to see that tools you teaching to students are regularly used in their daily lives.

Perhaps the best and most recent example of applications of econometrics is in the case filed against Harvard for discrimination against Asian-American students.

Any empirical economist is going to have a mega complex regarding his quantitative skillset, by which he means his prowess in econometric analysis. It is our comparative advantage over fields like sociology or other liberal arts. Anything they say you can't measure, you probably can, and we probably are arguing over it at this very moment.

Econometrics has the wonderful ability to quantify just about any social science phenomena one is interested in, so naturally this lends to understanding whether, statistically, there is evidence of segregation.

I plan to write more on this soon, but my favorite passage so far is on p. 34

"Mr. Hansen's models could lead a casual observer to conclude that race plays a
significantly larger role in Harvard s admissions process than it actually does... The models
incorporate far fewer variables than those prepared by the parties economic experts for this
litigation and omit many variables that are important to the admissions process. Compare [PX12
at 33 ] , with [ PD38 at 26 ]. Even Mr. Hansen's most complete model almost certainly suffers
from considerable omitted variable bias in light of the likely correlation between race and
important variables that Mr. Hansen did not include. Most notably, his models contain no
controls for socioeconomic and family circumstances that correlate with race and also affect
admissions decisions. See [PX12 at 33] . Given these deficiencies in the models, they are
entitled to little weight for the purpose of determining whether Harvard discriminates against
Asian American applicants, particularly given the availability of the experts far more
comprehensive models and the testimony offered by fact witnesses in this case. See Oct 19 Tr.
19: 19– 20:8... Hansen's models do suggest, consistent with other evidence, that Asian
Americans applicants excel in academic metrics; that tips for legacies and recruited athletes
result in more white students being admitted; that a projection of Harvard' s class based only on
the profile ratings, academic metrics, and athlete and legacy statuses is incomplete and results in
a projected class that is vastly less racially diverse than the one Harvard achieves; and that ,
absent any consideration of race,Harvard s classes would have drastically fewer African
American and Hispanic students."