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Free college? Assessing enrollment responses to the Tennessee Promise program

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  • Nguyen, Hieu

Abstract

In this paper, we study a novel, broad-based tuition assistance program within the two-year college sector and contribute new results to both the expansive higher education funding literature and the modest yet fast-growing college promise literature. Starting with the class of 2015, the state of Tennessee has been covering full tuition and fees for any high school graduate who wishes to attend a state-funded two-year college under its unique Tennessee Promise initiative. Exploiting the timing of this policy shock, we employ quasi-experimental methods to document that Tennessee Promise increased full-time first-time undergraduate enrollment at the state's community colleges by at least 40%. We also find a positive response in attendance among black and Hispanic students. An auxiliary analysis shows a short-run reduction of about 2% in enrollment at the state's public four-year institutions, suggesting some degree of substitutability between the unsubsidized and subsidized college sectors. We discuss the implications of our findings for the design of future statewide free-college programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Nguyen, Hieu, 2020. "Free college? Assessing enrollment responses to the Tennessee Promise program," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:66:y:2020:i:c:s0927537120300865
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2020.101882
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    Cited by:

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    2. Roy Y. Chan, 2022. "Do Credit Momentum Policies Through the 15 to Finish Improve Academic Progression and Completion of Low-Income, First-Generation Students? Evidence from a College Promise Program," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(8), pages 1394-1426, December.
    3. Chakraborty Avinandan & Doremus Jacqueline & Stith Sarah, 2021. "The effects of recreational cannabis access on labor markets: evidence from Colorado," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-86, January.
    4. Rodolfo M. Nayga & Jianhui Liu & Bachir Kassas, 2024. "The looming demographic cliff: A wake‐up call for the agricultural and applied economics profession," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(2), pages 468-484, March.
    5. Guilherme Strifezzi Leal & Ã lvaro Choi, 2022. "Income-based scholarships and access to higher education," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2022/420, University of Barcelona School of Economics.

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