A Cautionary Tale about Emergency Financial Assistance without Services: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluation at a Community College

William Evans, Melissa S. Kearney, Brendan Perry and James Sullivan

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2019, vol. 109, 218-22

Abstract: Community college completion rates are extremely low, especially among low-income students. One potential explanation is that low-income students have limited capacity to overcome financial shocks, such as large medical, legal, or car repair bills. Some programs offer "emergency financial assistance" (EFA) to prevent these events from curtailing educational progress. We test the efficacy of EFA within the context of a broader randomized controlled trial at a community college in Texas. We find no evidence that access to EFA alone leads to improved outcomes. We speculate that EFA will only be effective if it is paired with additional case management services.

JEL-codes: I22 I23 I24 I28 I32 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20191014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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