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American Economic Review Vol. 106 No. 5 2016

Student Loan Information Provision and Academic Choices

Maximilian D. Schmeiser1; Christiana Stoddard2; Carly Urban3

1 Amazon, 2201 Westlake Avenue, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98121 (e-mail: ) · 2 Montana State University, 306 Linfield Hall, PO Box 2920, Bozeman, MT 59718 (e-mail: ) · 3 Montana State University, 208 Linfield Hall, PO Box 2920, Bozeman, MT 59718 (e-mail: )

Abstract

We examine the effect of a student loan information intervention on changes in college major using administrative data from the Montana University System from 2002-2014. Our difference-in-difference-in-differences strategy exploits the relative trends for students at Montana State University above and below the cutoff for receiving a warning letter about their student debt, compared to their counterparts at the University of Montana. We find that students who receive information suggesting they may be unlikely to be able to repay their loans are more likely to switch to higher earning majors, with higher academic performers most likely to choose STEM fields.

DOI
10.1257/aer.p20161122
Volume
106
Issue
5
Pages
324-328
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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