Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Forthcoming
  • Article
  • Administrative Science Quarterly

Regulatory Spillover and Workplace Racial Inequality

By: Letian Zhang
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

This paper suggests that affirmative action bans in the U.S. public sector may influence racial inequality in the private sector. Since the 1990s, nine states have banned affirmative action practice in public universities and state governments. Though these bans have no legal jurisdiction over private-sector firms, I theorize that they could influence such firms normatively. Executives who have been skeptical about EEO policies may feel more normatively licensed to reduce commitment to EEO practices after such a ban. Using a difference-in-differences estimation on 11,311 firms from 1985 to 2015, I find that the bans are indeed associated with slower racial progress in private sector firms: after a state adopts the affirmative action ban, growth in the proportion of Black managers in establishments with corporate headquarters in that state slows down by more than 50 percent and this slowdown is mostly concentrated in firms with politically conservative CEOs. These findings suggest a mechanism for the persistence of racial inequality and show that regulations can influence actors well beyond legal jurisdictions.

Keywords

Inequality; Regulation; Law; Organizational Norm; CEO; Affirmative Action; Organizations; Private Sector; Equality and Inequality; Diversity; Race; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Citation

Zhang, Letian. "Regulatory Spillover and Workplace Racial Inequality." Administrative Science Quarterly (forthcoming).
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Letian Zhang

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • October 2021
    • Faculty Research

    A Framework for Understanding Racial Disadvantage within Organizations

    By: Alexandra C. Feldberg, Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
    • September 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Growing Pains at Coohom (B)

    By: Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
    • September 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Growing Pains at Coohom (A)

    By: Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
More from the Author
  • A Framework for Understanding Racial Disadvantage within Organizations By: Alexandra C. Feldberg, Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
  • Growing Pains at Coohom (B) By: Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
  • Growing Pains at Coohom (A) By: Letian Zhang and Anthony J. Mayo
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College