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Do College Tuition Subsidies Boost Spending and Reduce Debt? Impacts by Income and Race

Rajashri Chakrabarti, William Nober and Wilbert van der Klaauw

No 20200708d, Liberty Street Economics from Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract: In an October post, we showed the effect of college tuition subsidies in the form of merit-based financial aid on educational and student debt outcomes, documenting a large decline in student debt for those eligible for merit aid. Additionally, we reported striking differences in these outcomes by demographics, as proxied by neighborhood race and income. In this follow-up post, we examine whether and how this effect passes through to other debt and consumption outcomes, namely those related to autos, homes, and credit cards. We find that access to merit aid leads to an immediate but temporary increase in eligible individuals’ consumption in these categories. The increase is followed by a decline in consumption and a reduction in total debt of these types in the longer term. Importantly, there are marked differences in these consumption and debt patterns across income and race groups.

Keywords: tuition; subsidy; merit aid; debt; diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07-08
Note: Heterogeneity Series III: Credit Market Outcomes
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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