Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: The Heterogeneous Effects of Student Loans

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。在过去的15年里，美国未偿还的学生债务增加了五倍多。学生债务的增加引发了激烈的政治辩论和各种各样的解决方案，从普遍免费大学到有针对性的需求改革。本课题将通过关注被称为“贷款削减计划”的助学金计划的效果，使用人工收集的劳动力市场结果的新数据，研究学生贷款在职业选择中的作用。该项目将进一步探索各种机制，以了解贷款减少方案如何影响职业选择，以及这些选择在家庭财富分配中的差异。该提案的结果将对设计学生贷款政策产生重要影响。虽然对普通学生的估计可以作为增加整体经济援助的论据，但这种估计并没有解决如何最好地分配经济援助的更复杂和紧迫的问题。为了设计更好的分配政策，重要的是要探索谁受到学生债务的限制。该项目将在1998年至2019年期间在88所大学交错实施贷款减免政策，作为改变学生债务的工具。该研究将分析学生债务对劳动成果的影响是否因某些人口统计学特征而在学生群体中有所不同。例如，该项目将考察低收入家庭的学生在劳动选择方面是否受到更多限制，以及这些学生在获得更多资助时是否更有可能选择需要额外人力资本积累的职业。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Over the past 15 years, outstanding student debt in the U.S. has increased more than fivefold. This rise in student debt has led to intense political debate and a wide variety of proposed solutions, from universal free college to targeted need-based reforms. This project will examine the role of student loans in occupational choice, using novel hand-collected data on labor market outcomes by focusing on the effect of financial aid programs called Loan Reduction Programs. The project will further explore mechanisms to understand how Loan Reduction Programs affects occupational choices and how these choices differ across the distribution of family wealth. The outcomes of the proposal will have important implications for designing student loan policies.There is an emerging debate on student loans. While estimates for the average student can serve as an argument to increase financial aid overall, such estimates do not address the more complex and pressing problem of how best to allocate financial aid. To design better allocation policies, it is important to explore who is constrained by student debt. The project will use staggered implementation of Loan Reduction Policies across 88 universities from 1998 to 2019 as an instrument for changes in student debt. The research will analyze whether the effect of student debt on labor outcomes differs across the student population in relation to certain demographic characteristics. The project, for example, will examine whether students from low-income families are more constrained in their labor choices, and whether these students are more likely to choose occupations that require additional human capital accumulation when they receive more financial aid.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.