Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0005-0807-1860

Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Daniel Firoozi

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of Brazil’s affirmative action quota system on both academic performance and student experience in federal universities. Following the implementation of the 2012 Federal Quota Law, institutions were required to reserve a substantial share of seats for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. While the policy has been widely studied in terms of access, less is known about its impact on outcomes after enrollment. Using program-level data from the National Student Performance Examination (Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes [ENADE]), this study analyzes how changes in the share of affirmative action students between 2015 and 2018 are associated with academic performance and student-reported experiences. The empirical strategy exploits variation in quota expansion across university–program pairs and estimates cross-sectional regressions controlling for baseline characteristics in both periods. The results show that increases in the share of affirmative action students are not associated with statistically significant changes in academic performance, as measured by both mean and 25th-percentile ENADE scores. These findings provide no evidence that quota expansion negatively affects academic outcomes. At the same time, the analysis reveals positive and, in some cases, statistically significant associations with measures of student experience, including student government participation, institutional support, and innovative learning environments. Overall, the findings suggest that Brazil’s affirmative action policy expands access to higher education without compromising academic quality and may contribute to improvements in the broader educational environment.

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