This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
  4. October 2014
  5. Merit Aid, College Quality, and College Completion: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship as an In-Kind Subsidy

Merit Aid, College Quality, and College Completion: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship as an In-Kind Subsidy

  • Sarah R. Cohodes
  • Joshua S. Goodman
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 6, no. 4, October 2014
(pp. 251-85)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

We analyze a Massachusetts merit aid program that gives highscoring students tuition waivers at in-state public colleges with lower graduation rates than available alternative colleges. A regression discontinuity design comparing students just above and below the eligibility threshold finds that students are remarkably willing to forgo college quality and that scholarship use actually lowered college completion rates. These results suggest that college quality affects college completion rates. The theoretical prediction that inking subsidies of public institutions can reduce consumption of the subsidized good is shown to be empirically important.

Citation

Cohodes, Sarah R., and Joshua S. Goodman. 2014. "Merit Aid, College Quality, and College Completion: Massachusetts' Adams Scholarship as an In-Kind Subsidy." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6 (4): 251-85. DOI: 10.1257/app.6.4.251

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
  • I22 Educational Finance; Financial Aid
  • I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
  • I28 Education: Government Policy
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment