Upstream and Downstream Impacts of College Merit-Based Financial Aid for Low-Income Students: Ser Pilo Paga in Colombia

Juliana Londoño-Vélez, Catherine Rodriguez and Fabio Sanchez Torres

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2020, vol. 12, issue 2, 193-227

Abstract: How does financial aid affect postsecondary enrollment, college choice, and student composition? We present new evidence based on a large-scale program available to high-achieving, low-income students for attending high-quality colleges in Colombia. RD estimates show financial aid eligibility raised immediate enrollment by 56.5 to 86.5 percent, depending on the complier population. This rise, driven by matriculation at private, high-quality colleges, closed the SES enrollment gap among high achievers. Moreover, a DID approach suggests enrollment of aid-ineligible students also improved because college supply expanded in response to heightened demand. With ability stratification largely replacing SES stratification, diversity increased 46 percent at private, high-quality colleges.

JEL-codes: I22 I23 I24 I26 J24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20180131 (application/pdf)
http://doi.org/10.3886/E109704V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20180131.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20180131.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
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:aea:aejpol:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:193-227

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180131

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

More articles in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().