On the road to social mobility? Affirmative action and major choice
研究巴西一所精英大学扩大低社会经济地位学生可选专业范围的政策，发现该政策增加了他们申请和进入STEM等热门高薪专业的比例，并减弱了家庭背景对专业选择的影响。
Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are often underrepresented in prestigious and high-paying fields of study, such as STEM. While affirmative action (AA) policies have been shown to increase the representation of minority students in selective universities, they may also affect students’ choice of majors, with potential implications for social mobility. We exploit a policy implemented by a selective Brazilian university that expanded the range of majors available to lower-SES applicants, using it as a natural experiment. We find that the policy increased targeted students’ applications to, and acceptance into, prestigious STEM majors, and attenuated the influence of socioeconomic background on major choices.