Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Information and Financial Aid: Policies That Affect Higher Education Investment

(Education)

Increasing costs of higher education and a student loan debt total of $1.2 trillion have generated a policy discussion surrounding potential interventions to ensure individuals are optimally acquiring and financing higher education. This panel includes innovative research that seeks to identify effective strategies that impact college attendance and financial aid behaviors. These include a range of field and natural experiments evaluating specific state or institutional policies. The first paper studies the ways in which complexities in college and financial aid applications decrease attendance. By simplifying the process, applications increase and do so differentially across economically disadvantaged groups. The second paper looks at a policy targeted at improving the financial knowledge of young adults: mandatory financial education courses in high school. This paper studies the link between financial education in high school and individuals’ initial student loan packages, where financial education does not change the rate of filling out the FAFSA but does increase scholarships for high-achieving students. The third paper looks at the effect of a Georgia policy that caused many college students to lose financial aid. This paper estimates the effect of losing financial aid in on an individual’s probability of retention and graduation. The final paper is the first to determine the effects of federally mandated student loan counseling. It also contributes to our understanding of for-profit colleges. The combination of these four, rigorous studies will walk policymakers through college entry, financing, and completion decisions that are on the forefront of policy debates. Further, the policies focused on span geographical areas. Three of the policies studied are from Georgia, Michigan, and Montana, and one is national in scope. This panel brings together researchers from a wide array of fields, including economics, education, sociology, and public policy. Our discussant, Lesley Turner, is an expert researcher in the higher education financing field, and our session chair, Louisa Quittman, is an expert on financial education from the U.S. Treasury Department. Her ability to tie together the research findings and directly relate them to current policy is invaluable.