The effect of grants on university drop-out rates: evidence on the Italian case

Francesca Modena, Giulia Martina Tanzi () and Enrico Rettore
Additional contact information
Giulia Martina Tanzi: Bank of Italy

No 1193, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: In this paper we measure the impact of need-based grants on university dropout rates in the first year, using student-level data from all Italian universities in the period 2003-2013. In Italy, some of the students eligible for grants do not receive them due to a lack of funds. We exploit this phenomenon to identify the causal effect of financial assistance. We find that need-based aid prevents students belonging to low-income families from dropping out from higher education; the estimated effect is sizeable. This evidence is robust to a variety of specifications and sample selection criteria.

Keywords: human capital; higher education; university dropout; student financial aid; treatment effect model; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C35 I22 I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-eur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/temi-disc ... 193/en_tema_1193.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Effect of Grants on University Drop-Out Rates: Evidence on the Italian Case (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1193_18

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().