Journal of Political Economy Vol. 125 No. 2 2017
Credit Access and College Enrollment
Abstract
Does access to credit explain the gap in schooling attainment between children from richer and poorer families? I present new evidence on this important question based on the causal effects of two college loan programs in Chile that are available to students scoring above a threshold on the national college admission test, enabling a regression discontinuity design. I find that credit access leads to a 100 percent increase in immediate college enrollment and a 50 percent increase in the probability of ever enrolling. Moreover, access to loans effectively eliminates the income gap in enrollment and number of years of college attainment.
- DOI
- 10.1086/690829
- Volume
- 125
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 562-622
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref