Books Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study (Yale Nota Bene S)  by Thomas Sowell (Author)

"Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study" by Thomas Sowell is a thorough analysis of affirmative action policies across various countries, including the United States, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria. Sowell examines the real-world consequences of these policies, challenging the assumption that they are universally beneficial.

He finds that affirmative action programs often produce negligible or unintended negative effects. These include encouraging individuals to reclassify their group identity to gain benefits, primarily helping the most fortunate in preferred groups while sometimes disadvantaging the least fortunate in non-preferred groups. Additionally, such policies can reduce incentives for both preferred and non-preferred groups to perform at their best, resulting in overall societal losses.