Does Minority Representation Matter for Policy Outcomes?: Evidence from the U.s. States

Over the last forty years, racial minorities in the United States have made substantial progress in achieving greater representation in the legislative arena. However, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence as to whether this has had any direct impact on policy outcomes. Unlike past studies that employed roll-call analysis, this paper analyzes actual policy outcomes from the 1970s to the late 1990s across the United States to test whether the rise in minority representation has led to legislative outcomes that reflect minority interests. The paper empirically examines whether the presence of African Americans in state legislatures has influenced the way states distribute financial support to public schools. In order to identify the effects of minority representation, this paper exploits two instances of ‘exogenous shocks’ that led to large increases in the number of black state legislators. Using school district-level data, the paper finds statistically robust evidence that the political representation of minority groups is associated with a more equitable allocation of state aid to school districts. In states in which African Americans gained fairer representation, high minority enrollment school districts saw a greater increase in their state funding as compared to minority districts in states where minorities remained underrepresented. The results are robust to controls for the effect of mandated school-finance reforms, as well as other political and demographic factors. Thus, racial composition of legislatures does matter, not just in a symbolic sense, but also for policy outcomes that reflect diverse interests of society.