On Monday, I had the pleasure of hearing Duke University economics professor Peter Arcidiacono speak. His subject was research he’s done on the impact of the minimum wage (raising it tends to displace poorer people with lower skills with wealthier people who have better skills but weren’t in the market at lower wages, he concludes), but during the discussion, he mentioned a paper he’s written entitled “Does the River Spill Over? Estimating the Economic Returns to Attending a Racially Diverse College” (co-authored with Jacob Vigdor of Duke).

I downloaded the paper and read through it. His conclusion is that the degree of collegiate diversity has no effect on an individual’s productivity or life satisfaction. When he gets to the discussion of findings, he offers that “diversity capital may not exist. That is to say, two individuals’ ability to profitably interact in the marketplace is not impeded by any racial or ethnic differences between them.”

I think that’s a bullseye and it destroys one of the favored justifications for “diversity,” namely that American students need a big dose of multiculturalism if they’re going to be able to compete in an increasingly globalized marketplace. When people see the opportunity for gains through trade, they set aside differences.