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Affirmative Action in Brazil
The use of Affirmative Action in University admissions has been a heated debate for many years. In Brazil it has became more of a question on race, which many people in Brazil have never considered. Brazil is an extremely diverse nation ranging from white Brazilians, Afro Brazilians, Indigenous communities, mixed races and more. A lot of researchers research affirmative action in Brazil, about 10 times more slaves arrived in Brazil than in British Mainland North America .For this reason, Brazil has had a large black and mixed-race population. In 2014, about 45.5% of the population of 203 million was “branco” or light-skinned, 45.0% “pardo” or brown-skinned, and 8.6% “preto” or dark-skinned. Brazil uses an eligibility system to determine who gets the benefits of Affirmative Action. This can be based on race, and socioeconomic status. However the process of who gets the benefits have been controversial on both sides of the social political spectrum. The affects of using affirmative action have given opportunities to historically disadvantaged groups. Quick note: These statistics in development economics are mainly focused on admissions to the University of Brasília, which according to Times Higher Education is one of the top 5 Brazilian Universities, and Top 15 in South America.

The admissions process is highly competitive in Brazil due to the high amount of applicants each year. For example in 2016, 2,664,211 students applied for 242,984 slots in federal institutions, a rate of 11 students per vacancy. This becomes less of a numbers game, and mainly focuses on who has the highest grades. The main requirement for the entrance test is to have a secondary education. However the University of Brasilia has a very low acceptance rate and has created a mostly white student body. For instance, only 15% of seniors from public high schools and 11% of non-white seniors from public high schools that took the ENEM exam in 2010 progressed to public higher education. For private-school students, the rate of progression was 26%. This created a major controversy in the country, in response the Brazilian government implemented a quota system. To improve equality in access to the federal tertiary education system, the government of Brazil approved Law 12.711 on August 29, 2012, the so-called ”Quota Law” (QL). It established that 50% of all vacancies in each major at each federal institution must be reserved for students that attended all three years of secondary education in a public school. Moreover, there are sub-quotas, within these 50%, destined for racial and economic minorities. Since quota laws have been introduced in Brazil, people have taken issue to how a student qualifies through the quota system. One way is pictures are taken of student and it is decided by the Brazilian school board and officials if they qualify based on their race. During eligibility, Brazilian school board asks the students if they identify as Afro Brazilian.

Since the Quota Law was passed in 2012 the affects of it have started to show. The decision to enter the university via the quota policy or broad competition is an individual decision of the student as long as the criteria are met. The ENEM grade is an important variable for this decision-making, because entering the university through the quota policy requires lower cutoff grades; however, the number of vacancies is also smaller if compared with the broad competition. The low cut off grade can be seen as lowering standards, and lowering the quality of applicants. However recent studies grouped students who benefitted from the quota system to students who didn't use it. To analyze the impact of racial quotas on students' Enade scores and on the delay in completion, it would be ideal to observe the individuals considered treated (policy participants) in the absence of the policy in question. That is, ideally the same individuals should be analyzed with and without the treatment. This study compared scores across the board to come up with a new average with the students benefitting from the quota system. The study mainly tried to find a new average score for ENEM exam.

The study also mentioned living conditions of the students, and how that affects their decision to apply for affirmative action. This is to give light to some of the social issues happening in Brazil. Students who live with their parents or their spouse have, respectively, a reduced probability of participation in the race-based affirmative action policy by −0.006 and −0.011 compared with students who live alone. With regard to financial situation, in general, students with some income are less likely to be admitted into undergraduate programs via racial quotas. The main conclusion drawn was a slight decrease of the average score for quota students. But the most important discovery in the study was; outside sociological factors. Among the reasons that lead students to opt for admission to the undergraduate program via affirmative action, we found that issues such as color, financial situation, and the amount of time dedicated to studies, among others, have significant effects on individual decision-making.

Another thing is the amount of resources the students have access to, and how they can give these disadvantaged students a better chance. These can include textbooks, access to technology, access to resources without a paywall. You have the separation between private and public. All of these different issues. But to this day the University of Brasilia has it's highest diversity rate it has ever had, all with no impact on the quality of the education.