Student Debt Relief and Racial Wealth Gaps

Gerald E. Daniels, Jeffrey Galloway and Venoo Kakar

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2024, vol. 114, 535-39

Abstract: The Biden-Harris Administration released a plan to cancel federal student loans for 43 million borrowers on August 24, 2022. While the Supreme Court struck down the Biden-Harris student debt relief plan on June 30, 2023, the White House is now planning to use the Higher Education Act of 1965, a federal law that governs the student loan program, to bring about relief for student borrowers. This article estimates the potential impact of broad-based student debt relief on racial and ethnic wealth gaps. On average, federal student debt potentially eligible for relief explains 3 percent of the White-Black wealth gaps, suggesting that broad-based student debt relief could significantly mitigate racial wealth inequities.

JEL-codes: D31 G51 I22 I23 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20241130

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