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Working while studying? Student aid design and socioeconomic achievement disparities in higher education

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  • Avdic, Daniel
  • Gartell, Marie

Abstract

We analyze the relation between student academic achievement and labor supply by exploiting institutional variation derived from a Swedish public financial aid reform which altered the relative cost of financing college education through taking up student loans and engaging in market work, respectively. Applying detailed administrative data we estimate relative changes in earnings and academic credits attributed to the intervention for students from different social backgrounds. Results show that the reform increased relative earnings and decreased relative study pace for students from a lower socioeconomic background. These effects appear to have been driven by students more financially constrained by the previous system.

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  • Avdic, Daniel & Gartell, Marie, 2015. "Working while studying? Student aid design and socioeconomic achievement disparities in higher education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 26-40.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:33:y:2015:i:c:p:26-40
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2015.01.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Elena Mattana & Juanna Joensen, 2016. "Student Aid, Academic Achievement, and Labor Market Behavior," 2016 Meeting Papers 1102, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. Herber, Stefanie P. & Kalinowski, Michael, 2016. "Non-take-up of Student Financial Aid: A Microsimulation for Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145727, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Ost, Ben & Pan, Weixiang & Webber, Doug, 2018. "The impact of mass layoffs on the educational investments of working college students," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-12.
    4. Herber, Stefanie P. & Kalinowski, Michael, 2016. "Non-take-up of student financial aid: A microsimulation for Germany," BERG Working Paper Series 109, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    5. Lindsay Eastgate & Peter A. Creed & Michelle Hood & Andrea Bialocerkowski, 2023. "It Takes Work: How University Students Manage Role Boundaries when the Future is Calling," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(7), pages 1071-1088, November.
    6. Stefanie P. Herber & Michael Kalinowski, 2016. "Non-Take-Up of Student Financial Aid: A Microsimulation for Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 844, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial aid reform; Student labour supply; Time-to-graduation; Spillover effect; Socioeconomic inequality; Education policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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