The Impact of Income-Driven Repayment on Student Borrower Outcomes
利用贷款服务商自动拨号系统的随机变化，研究发现收入驱动还款计划在八个月内将学生贷款拖欠率降低22个百分点，并减少未偿余额，对信用评分和抵押贷款持有率等金融健康指标有长期积极影响。
In the United States, most student loans follow a fixed payment schedule that falls early in borrowers’ careers. This structure provides no insurance against earnings risk and may increase student loan defaults. Income-driven repayment (IDR) plans are designed to help distressed student borrowers by lowering their monthly payments to a share of income. Using random variation in a loan servicer’s automatic dialing system, I find that IDR reduces delinquencies by 22 percentage points and decreases outstanding balances within eight months of take-up. I find suggestive long-run impacts on borrower credit scores, mortgage-holding rates, and other measures of financial health.