The Impact of College Diversity on Behavior toward Minorities

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of racially diverse peers on white males’ subsequent behavior toward minorities. To overcome selection bias, we exploit data from the US Air Force Academy where students are randomly assigned to autonomous peer groups. A randomly assigned increase in freshman black peer ability causes white men to more frequently choose a black roommate in their sophomore year, after reassignment to a new peer group with a different set of black peers. We also find increased exposure to black students from the middle and top of the high school performance distribution, but not the bottom, increases future interactions. (JEL I23, J15)