期刊名称：Discussion Paper Series / Department of Economics, New York University
出版年度：2007
卷号：1
出版社：New York University
摘要：The majority of states in the U.S. now fund merit-based financial aid programs, the
effects of which depend on how strongly students react to changes in college costs. I
estimate such reactions using quasi-experimental aspects of a recent Massachusetts
merit scholarship program intended to attract talented students to the state¡¯s public
colleges. This paper is the first to document heterogeneity in price sensitivity among
students of varying academic abilities. My primary result is that, in spite of its small
monetary value, the scholarship induced 6% of winners to choose four-year public
colleges over four-year private colleges, the average of a large effect on the lowest ability
winners and no effect on the highest ability winners. The bulk of funds nonetheless
flowed to students who would have attended public colleges anyway, and the
scholarship had no effect on the overall college attendance rate, which for winners
was already above 90%. These findings have implications for the design of future
government-sponsored financial aid programs.
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