State Merit‐based Financial Aid Programs and College Attainment

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.

State Merit Aid Programs and College Major: A Focus on STEM

“…We consider both the major at time of matriculation (initial major) and the final major (earned major) for students who obtained a 4-year degree. Sjoquist and Winters (2012c) use the same preferred specification and confirm that there was no significant effect on degree completion in the USG data.…”

“…We investigate the effect of merit-based financial aid on student choice of college major, focusing especially on STEM majors, using two separate data sets, the American Community Survey (ACS) and administrative data for the University System of Georgia (USG), essentially following the procedures we used in considering the effect of merit-based aid on college completion (Sjoquist and Winters 2012c). Unlike Zhang (2011), who considers the merit-based aid program in only two states, we consider the effects in the 27 states that adopted merit-based aid programs between 1991-2005, although we focus on the 9 states that have more significant merit-aid programs.…”

The Effects of the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship on College Enrollment, Persistence, and Completion

“…Scott-Clayton (2011) finds that the West Virginia Promise (despite its name, a merit program) increased the probability of completing a bachelor's degree within four years. However, Sjoquist and Winters (2012) find that state-based merit aid programs, as a whole, have generally not been successful in increasing college attainment. Nonetheless, Deming and Dynarski (2010) conclude that several merit-based programs have large enough effects to pass a social benefit-cost test: the increase in the present value of future earnings of affected students exceeds the scholarship's costs.…”

The Merits of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence from the Kalamazoo Promise

“…For this reason it is important to examine the effects of more universal scholarships on different groups of students. Table 2 shows estimated Promise effects on credential completion at six years after high school graduation for three paired groups of graduates: low-income and non- 6 In addition to these studies, Dynarski (2008) finds a 2.5 percentage point increase in bachelor's (or more) attainment for cohorts of students exposed to the Arkansas and Georgia merit-based scholarships, although questions of statistical inference with her methodology were noted by Conley and Taber (2011), and Sjoquist and Winters (2014) find no impact when generalizing Dynarski's study to other merit-aid states or controlling for students' academic characteristics. Cohodes and Goodman (2014) find negative impacts of degree attainment from a merit scholarship in Massachusetts, which they argue result from inducing students to attend lower-quality colleges, a context that may be unique to New England.…”