Building the Stock of College-Educated Labor
利用准实验方法分析两个州奖学金项目,发现它们使获得大学学位的人口比例提高3个百分点,且对女性效果更强;成本收益分析表明项目在低至5%的教育回报率下仍具社会效率。
Half of college students drop out without completing a degree. This paper establishes a causal link between college costs and degree completion. I use quasi-experimental methodology to analyze two state scholarship programs. The programs increase the share of the exposed population with a college degree by three percentage points, with stronger effects among women. A cost-benefit analysis indicates that the programs are socially efficient at rates of return to schooling as low as 5 percent. Even with the offer of free tuition, many students continue to drop out, suggesting tuition costs are not the only impediment to college completion.