IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/udc/wpaper/wp464.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labor Market Returns to Student Loans

Author

Listed:
  • Alonso Bucarey
  • Dante Contreras
  • Pablo Muñoz

Abstract

This paper studies the labor market returns to a state guaranteed loan (SGL) used to finance university degrees. Using administrative data from Chile and a regression discontinuity design, we show that nine years after high school graduation students who enrolled at a university thanks to the SGL attended it for 5 years, foregoing 3 years of vocational education and accumulating additional 14 thousand dollars in student debt. Strikingly, these students do not benefit in terms wages, employment, type of contract, or type of employer. The low quality of institutions attended by loan users may account for these results.

Suggested Citation

  • Alonso Bucarey & Dante Contreras & Pablo Muñoz, 2018. "Labor Market Returns to Student Loans," Working Papers wp464, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp464
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.uchile.cl/uploads/publicacion/40da7d60fc3c326fedf765a59072b9315290d6c9.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Justine S. Hastings & Christopher A. Neilson & Seth D. Zimmerman, 2013. "Are Some Degrees Worth More than Others? Evidence from college admission cutoffs in Chile," NBER Working Papers 19241, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. David Card & Ana Rute Cardoso & Joerg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2018. "Firms and Labor Market Inequality: Evidence and Some Theory," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 13-70.
    3. Thomas J. Kane, 2007. "Evaluating the Impact of the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(3).
    4. Dynarski, Susan, 2000. "Hope for Whom? Financial Aid for the Middle Class and Its Impact on College Attendance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(3), pages 629-662, September.
    5. Sarah R. Cohodes & Joshua S. Goodman, 2014. "Merit Aid, College Quality, and College Completion: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship as an In-Kind Subsidy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 251-285, October.
    6. Rothstein, Jesse & Rouse, Cecilia Elena, 2011. "Constrained after college: Student loans and early-career occupational choices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 149-163.
    7. Goodman, Joshua, 2008. "Who merits financial aid?: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(10-11), pages 2121-2131, October.
    8. Atila Abdulkadiroğlu & Joshua Angrist & Parag Pathak, 2014. "The Elite Illusion: Achievement Effects at Boston and New York Exam Schools," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(1), pages 137-196, January.
    9. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    10. Joshua Angrist & David Autor & Sally Hudson & Amanda Pallais, 2014. "Leveling Up: Early Results from a Randomized Evaluation of Post-Secondary Aid," NBER Working Papers 20800, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Atila Abdulkadiroğlu & Parag A. Pathak & Christopher R. Walters, 2018. "Free to Choose: Can School Choice Reduce Student Achievement?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 175-206, January.
    12. Alex Solis, 2017. "Credit Access and College Enrollment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(2), pages 562-622.
    13. Christopher Cornwell & David B. Mustard & Deepa J. Sridhar, 2006. "The Enrollment Effects of Merit-Based Financial Aid: Evidence from Georgia's HOPE Program," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(4), pages 761-786, October.
    14. Katharine G. Abraham & Melissa A. Clark, 2006. "Financial Aid and Students’ College Decisions: Evidence from the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant Program," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(3).
    15. Harald Beyer & Justine Hastings & Christopher Neilson & Seth Zimmerman, 2015. "Connecting Student Loans to Labor Market Outcomes: Policy Lessons from Chile," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 508-513, May.
    16. Jorge Rodríguez & Sergio Urzúa & Loreto Reyes, 2016. "Heterogeneous Economic Returns to Post-Secondary Degrees: Evidence from Chile," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(2), pages 416-460.
    17. John Bound & Sarah Turner, 2002. "Going to War and Going to College: Did World War II and the G.I. Bill Increase Educational Attainment for Returning Veterans?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 784-815, October.
    18. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    19. David Deming & Susan Dynarski, 2009. "Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the Postsecondary Attainment of the Poor," NBER Working Papers 15387, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Tomás Rau & Eugenio Rojas & Sergio Urzúa, 2013. "Loans for Higher Education: Does the Dream Come True?," NBER Working Papers 19138, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Benjamin M. Marx & Lesley J. Turner, 2018. "Borrowing Trouble? Human Capital Investment with Opt-In Costs and Implications for the Effectiveness of Grant Aid," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 163-201, April.
    22. Christopher Avery & Caroline Hoxby & Clement Jackson & Kaitlin Burek & Glenn Pope & Mridula Raman, 2006. "Cost Should Be No Barrier: An Evaluation of the First Year of Harvard's Financial Aid Initiative," NBER Working Papers 12029, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Abadie A., 2002. "Bootstrap Tests for Distributional Treatment Effects in Instrumental Variable Models," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 97, pages 284-292, March.
    24. Ana Maria Montoya & Carlos Noton & Alex Solis, 2017. "Returns to Higher Education: Vocational Education vs College," Documentos de Trabajo 334, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Card & Alex Solis, 2022. "Measuring the Effect of Student Loans on College Persistence," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 17(2), pages 335-366, Spring.
    2. Montoya, Ana Maria & Noton, Carlos & Solis, Alex, 2018. "The Returns to College Choice: Loans, Scholarships and Labor Outcomes," Working Paper Series 2018:12, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    3. Solis, Alex, 2019. "Measuring the Effect of Student Loans on the College Dropout Rate," Working Paper Series 2019:8, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lindsay C. Page & Judith Scott-Clayton, 2015. "Improving College Access in the United States: Barriers and Policy Responses," NBER Working Papers 21781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Page, Lindsay C. & Scott-Clayton, Judith, 2016. "Improving college access in the United States: Barriers and policy responses," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 4-22.
    3. Gabrielle Fack & Julien Grenet, 2015. "Improving College Access and Success for Low-Income Students: Evidence from a Large Need-Based Grant Program," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 1-34, April.
    4. David Deming & Susan Dynarski, 2009. "Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the Postsecondary Attainment of the Poor," NBER Working Papers 15387, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Molina, Teresa & Rivadeneyra, Ivan, 2021. "The schooling and labor market effects of eliminating university tuition in Ecuador," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    6. Waddell, Glen R. & Singell Jr., Larry D., 2011. "Do no-loan policies change the matriculation patterns of low-income students?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 203-214, April.
    7. Aguirre, Josefa, 2021. "Long-term effects of grants and loans for vocational education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    8. Bednar, Steven & Gicheva, Dora, 2013. "Tax benefits for graduate education: Incentives for whom?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 181-197.
    9. Joshua Angrist & David Autor & Sally Hudson & Amanda Pallais, 2014. "Leveling Up: Early Results from a Randomized Evaluation of Post-Secondary Aid," NBER Working Papers 20800, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. David Deming & Susan Dynarski, 2010. "College Aid," NBER Chapters, in: Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty When Resources Are Limited, pages 283-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Eric Bettinger & Oded Gurantz & Laura Kawano & Bruce Sacerdote, 2016. "The Long Run Impacts of Merit Aid: Evidence from California’s Cal Grant," NBER Working Papers 22347, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Susan Dynarski & Judith Scott-Clayton & Mark Wiederspan, 2013. "Simplifying Tax Incentives and Aid for College: Progress and Prospects," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 27, pages 161-201, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Welch, Jilleah G., 2014. "HOPE for community college students: The impact of merit aid on persistence, graduation, and earnings," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-20.
    14. Fitzpatrick, Maria D. & Jones, Damon, 2016. "Post-baccalaureate migration and merit-based scholarships," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 155-172.
    15. Andrews, Rodney J. & DesJardins, Stephen & Ranchhod, Vimal, 2010. "The effects of the Kalamazoo Promise on college choice," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 722-737, October.
    16. 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.
    17. Bruce, Donald J. & Carruthers, Celeste K., 2014. "Jackpot? The impact of lottery scholarships on enrollment in Tennessee," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 30-44.
    18. Wright, Nicholas A., 2021. "Need-based financing policies, college decision-making, and labor market behavior: Evidence from Jamaica," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    19. Sarah R. Cohodes & Joshua S. Goodman, 2014. "Merit Aid, College Quality, and College Completion: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship as an In-Kind Subsidy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 251-285, October.
    20. Ana Maria Montoya & Carlos Noton & Alex Solis, 2017. "Returns to Higher Education: Vocational Education vs College," Documentos de Trabajo 334, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp464. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mohit Karnani (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuclcl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.