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Can targeted information affect academic performance and borrowing behavior for college students? Evidence from administrative data

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  • Stoddard, Christiana
  • Urban, Carly
  • Schmeiser, Maximilian

Abstract

More students than ever borrow to finance post-secondary education. However, students receive little information during the course of their college career that encourages them to recalibrate loan amounts and to consider academic and borrowing decisions jointly. This paper exploits a natural experiment to understand how targeted information can change student behavior. We study a large public university where students above a given debt threshold received letters with bundled information on student loan debt and effectively completing college, while students below the threshold did not. Using a difference-in-difference strategy and administrative data on individual-level academic records and borrowing, the intervention did not change borrowing in the subsequent semester but improved academic outcomes: credits completed and GPAs increased in the subsequent semester and retention rates increased.

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  • Stoddard, Christiana & Urban, Carly & Schmeiser, Maximilian, 2017. "Can targeted information affect academic performance and borrowing behavior for college students? Evidence from administrative data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 95-109.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:56:y:2017:i:c:p:95-109
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.12.004
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bo, Shiyu & Liu, Jing & Shiu, Ji-Liang & Song, Yan & Zhou, Sen, 2019. "Admission mechanisms and the mismatch between colleges and students: Evidence from a large administrative dataset from China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 27-37.
    3. Barr, Andrew & Bird, Kelli A. & Castleman, Benjamin L., 2021. "The effect of reduced student loan borrowing on academic performance and default: Evidence from a loan counseling experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    4. Kelly Ochs Rosinger, 2019. "Can Simplifying Financial Aid Offers Impact College Enrollment and Borrowing? Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 14(4), pages 601-626, Fall.
    5. Manger, Christian, 2020. "The strategic overuse of student loans," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Barua, Rashmi & Shastry, Gauri Kartini & Yang, Dean, 2020. "Financial education for female foreign domestic workers in Singapore," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Andre Rossi Oliveira, 2024. "Evaluating the Short-term Causal Effect of Early Alert on Student Performance," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 65(7), pages 1395-1419, November.

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