Tuition, Debt, and Human Capital

73 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2020 Last revised: 25 Feb 2022

See all articles by Rajashri Chakrabarti

Rajashri Chakrabarti

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Vyacheslav Fos

Boston College - Department of Finance; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Andres Liberman

Betterfly

Constantine Yannelis

University of Chicago

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 28, 2020

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of college tuition on student debt and human capital accumulation. We exploit data from a random sample of undergraduate students in the United States and implement a research design that instruments for realized tuition with relatively large changes to the advertised tuition of students who enrolled at the same school in different cohorts. We find that $5,000 in higher tuition causally reduces the probability of graduating with a graduate degree by 3.1 percentage points and increases student debt by $1,480. Higher tuition also reduces the probability of obtaining an undergraduate degree among poorer students.

Keywords: tuition, student debt, human capital, credit constraints

JEL Classification: D14, H52, H81, I23, J24

Suggested Citation

Chakrabarti, Rajashri and Fos, Vyacheslav and Liberman, Andres and Yannelis, Constantine, Tuition, Debt, and Human Capital (December 28, 2020). FRB of New York Staff Report No. 912, Rev. February 2022, NYU Stern School of Business, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3532593 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3532593

Rajashri Chakrabarti (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of New York ( email )

33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States

HOME PAGE: http://nyfedeconomists.org/chakrabarti

Vyacheslav Fos

Boston College - Department of Finance ( email )

Carroll School of Management
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3808
United States

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

Andres Liberman

Betterfly ( email )

Santiago
Chile

Constantine Yannelis

University of Chicago ( email )

1101 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

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