Dear Economics of Education program members,
I apologize to those of you who will already have received notification of
this request.
As you know, I do not normally forward requests regarding any type of
government policy, including data policy. However, legitimate researchers'
lack of access to administrative data regarding federal Student Aid and
Student Loans has been highly problematic for decades. We are routinely
asked to answer questions that we might be able to answer with these data.
Without them, we often cannot provide the economic analysis that policy
makers and others legitimately seek. Although the U.S. Department of
Education does make some survey data (notably, NPSAS) available, those data
are not adequate for much modern econometric analysis.
Thus, I am breaking my rule about forwarding you requests to ask that you
consider the following email from Susan Dynarski (Michigan) and Jordan
Matsudaira (Cornell). Of course, I hope that you judge this matter for
yourselves, recognizing that your own expertise about the use of these data
is likely to be greater than that of the vast majority of other people. If
you have questions, please do direct them to Sue and Jordan.
All good wishes,
Caroline Hoxby
**********************************
Subject: Sign a letter urging ED to release administrative data on federal
student aid recipients
To: "Jordan D. Matsudaira" <jordan.matsudaira_at_cornell.edu>, Susan Dynarski <
dynarski_at_umich.edu>
Cc: CJ Libassi <libassi_at_umich.edu>, Ben Miller <
blmiller_at_americanprogress.org>
Dear friends and colleagues,
We write to ask you to consider signing the letter linked here
<
https://goo.gl/DAUeYx> that urges the Department of Education (ED) to
release to qualified researchers individual-level, administrative data on
federal aid participants to shed light on the causes and consequences of
the recent rise in student borrowing, increased prevalence of borrower
distress and default, and the experiences of students receiving federal
loans and grants.
The letter is being organized by the Center for American Progress, along
with other higher education think tanks. They are hoping for a strong
demonstration of support from the academic community to underscore the
research value of this data.
ED recently shared this file with the Treasury Department for the first
time, allowing progress such as Looney and Yannelis' (2015
<
https://www.brookings.edu/bpea-articles/a-crisis-in-student-loans-how-changes-in-the-characteristics-of-borrowers-and-in-the-institutions-they-attended-contributed-to-rising-loan-defaults/>)
ground-breaking study of changes in the characteristics, balances, and
outcomes of student loan borrowers. The data have not been released more
widely to researchers, though there are many more questions to be
addressed, now and in the future.
You can read the text of the letter and sign here:
http://goo.gl/DAUeYx
You can see a list of signatories to the letter here:
http://goo.gl/8PkVQB
We hope you’ll consider adding your name to the effort. Please circulate
to other researchers who may be interested, though the organizers prefer to
keep the effort away from social media for now.
Best,
Susan Dynarski
Professor of Economics, Education and Public Policy
University of Michigan
and
Jordan Matsudaira
Assistant Professor of Policy Analysis and Management
Cornell University
(formerly: Chief Economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers)
--
Caroline M. Hoxby
Scott & Donya Bommer Prof. of Economics and Senior Fellow of the Hoover
Institution
Director, Economics of Education, National Bureau of Economic Research
Assistant: Ely Estoesta
650-723-9678, estoesta_at_stanford.edu
Department of Economics
Stanford University
Landau Building, 579 Serra Mall
Stanford CA 94305
Received on Thu Sep 15 2016 - 06:33:25 EDT
