Affirmative Action vs. Affirmative Information

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Reich, Claire Lazar
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2021
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author Reich, Claire Lazar
author_facet Reich, Claire Lazar
contents Critical decisions in hiring, college admissions, and credit lending are guided by predictions made in the presence of uncertainty. While uncertainty imparts errors across all demographic groups, this paper shows that the types of errors vary systematically: Groups with higher average outcomes are typically assigned higher false positive rates, while those with lower average outcomes are assigned higher false negative rates. We characterize the conditions that give rise to this disparate impact and explain why the intuitive remedy to omit demographic variables from datasets does not correct it. Instead of data omission, this paper examines how data acquisition can broaden access to opportunity. The strategy, which we call "Affirmative Information," could stand as an alternative to Affirmative Action.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2102_10019
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Affirmative Action vs. Affirmative Information
Reich, Claire Lazar
Machine Learning
Theoretical Economics
Critical decisions in hiring, college admissions, and credit lending are guided by predictions made in the presence of uncertainty. While uncertainty imparts errors across all demographic groups, this paper shows that the types of errors vary systematically: Groups with higher average outcomes are typically assigned higher false positive rates, while those with lower average outcomes are assigned higher false negative rates. We characterize the conditions that give rise to this disparate impact and explain why the intuitive remedy to omit demographic variables from datasets does not correct it. Instead of data omission, this paper examines how data acquisition can broaden access to opportunity. The strategy, which we call "Affirmative Information," could stand as an alternative to Affirmative Action.
title Affirmative Action vs. Affirmative Information
topic Machine Learning
Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.10019