Testing the Contact Hypothesis: Long-Run Effects of Racial Composition in Early-Career Training
Grant Type
Early Career Research Award
Publication Date
4-21-2023
Description
We test the contact hypothesis by exploiting quasi-random variation in the racial composition of West Point’s initial training platoons. Using administrative data on cadets entering between 2001 and 2020, we estimate the effect of early-career exposure to Black peers on cadet behavior during the Academy. We then look at their subordinate performance ratings when they are officers by examining their Black NCO career outcomes measured up to nine years later. Cadets assigned to training platoons with above-median Black peers increase their participation in racially diverse clubs during the academic year, but we see no effects on graduation or a cadet’s choice of career field (“Branch”). White officers from high-diversity platoons at West Point have no detectable changes in how they rate their Black NCOs, nor are there changes in their Black NCO’s objective performance measures. Equivalence testing and Bayesian posterior bounds rule out effects on the order of those reported in the contact-intervention literature.