Estimating the Effect of Student Aid on College Enrollment: Evidence from a Government Grant Policy Reform

Helena Skyt Nielsen, Torben Sørensen, Christopher R. Taber

NBER Working Paper No. 14535
Issued in December 2008
NBER Program(s):   ED   LS   PE

In this paper, we investigate the responsiveness of the demand for college to changes in student aid arising from a Danish reform. We separately identify the effect of aid from that of other observed and unobserved variables such as parental income. We exploit the combination of a kinked aid scheme and a reform of the student aid scheme to identify the effect of direct costs on college enrollment. To allow for heterogeneous responses due to borrowing constraints, we use detailed information on parents' assets. We find that enrollment is less responsive than found in other studies and that the presence of borrowing constraints only deters college enrollment to a minor extent.

(221 K)

Published:

• Helena Skyt Nielsen & Torben Sørensen & Christopher Taber, 2010. "Estimating the Effect of Student Aid on College Enrollment: Evidence from a Government Grant Policy Reform," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 185-215, May. ,
• Estimating the Effect of Student Aid on College Enrollment: Evidence from a Government Grant Policy Reform, Helena Skyt Nielsen, Torben Sørensen, Christopher Taber, in Income Taxation, Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar (TAPES), American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2(2), May 2010
  

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