The more diverse an MBA program or law school is, the higher the median starting salary offered to its graduates, two professors of marketing say in a paper published by the journal Nature. The study included a review of almost 3,400 law school classes at 200 schools over 21 years, starting in 1999. Robb Mandelbaum reported on the study for Bloomberg Law.

The study finds as follows:

“We found that MBA and JD students graduating from schools with higher racial diversity were paid higher median salaries than were graduates from less racially diverse institutions . . . . Conversely, lower racial diversity was associated with lower median salaries. Salary data measure the human-capital value of employees in labour markets: the contributions of graduates who are paid more are valued more highly than those of graduates who are paid less by their employers. Because graduates of racially diverse programmes are paid more than are those of less racially diverse programmes, policies that result in reduced racial diversity are likely to decrease learning, lower graduates’ human-capital value and reduce other benefits that can be attributed to diversity (such as cross-racial understanding, the breaking of stereotypes and the remediation of racial injustice).” (footnote omitted).