TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kane,Thomas J.
TI  - A Quasi-Experimental Estimate of the Impact of Financial Aid on College-Going
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9703
PY  - 2003
Y2  - May 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9703
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9703.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thomas J. Kane
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Center for Education Policy Research
50 Church St., 4th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/496-4359
E-Mail: kaneto@gse.harvard.edu
AB  - Although state and federal governments heavily subsidize the price of college, estimates of the impact of these subsidies on college enrollment have not been well-identified. I use a regression discontinuity design to study the impact of the CalGrant program in California on college going. Eligibility requires students to meet minimum thresholds on three characteristics: income, assets and high school Grade Point Average. Because there are several dimensions of eligibility, the analysis allows for specification tests, estimating any discontinuities along a given dimension of eligibility, dependent upon whether one satisfied the other two dimensions of eligibility. The paper uses a novel data collection strategy to measure subsequent college enrollment for 150,000 financial aid applicants in 1998 and 1999. The results suggest large impacts (3 to 4 percentage points) of grant eligibility on college enrollment among financial aid applicants, with larger impacts on the choice of private four-year colleges in California.
ER  -