Free University? An Investigation of Australia’s 1974 Free Higher Education Policy and Its Impact on Enrollment, Degree Completion, Later-Life Occupational Status, and Income
by Annie Cui
Abstract
To what extent has the free higher education policy of 1974 impacted Australian
students’ decisions of university enrollment, degree completion, and later-life human capital
development? In this paper, I analyze the impact of the policy from both national descriptive
statistics and individual-level enrollment and degree completion decisions using the Australian
Household Income and Labour Dynamics Survey. I find that the policy has significantly
increased the likelihood of female enrollment in higher education, low-income students’
likelihood of diploma degree completion, and is positively associated with later-life occupational
status. However, this study does not find a clear relationship between the policy, bachelor’s
degree attainment, and later-life disposable income. Policymakers need to carefully consider the
efficiency and efficacy of broad-based tuition policy instruments when imagining bridges to
achieve universal access to higher education.
Professor Robert Garlick, Faculty Advisor
Professor Peter Arcidiacono, Faculty Advisor
Professor Michelle Connolly, Seminar Advisor
JEL Classification: I22; I23; I26
Student Effort and Parent Attitude on Education Attainment: Evidence from Multi-year Survey in Gansu, China
by Ridge Zhong-yuan Ren
Abstract
This paper explores whether student effort and parent attitudes have varying effects at different stages of a student’s life in terms of educational attainment and job outcomes. With survey data in Gansu, China, a largely rural province in Northwest China that lags behind the rest of China in education, this paper employs a multivariate regression model. This method allows me to measure the achievement or outcome of the child between each successive wave of surveys and estimate which factors held the strongest effect on the next wave. Student achievement in early waves is measured by the student’s score on assessments in math and Chinese, and the later outcome is measured by the student’s income and the highest level of education achieved. This paper finds that effort in Math and math achievement have a positive association with better education attainment and career outcomes later in life. In addition, I find that parental education levels also have a positive association with child outcomes.
Pengpeng Xiao, Faculty Advisor
Kent P. Kimbrough, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: I25, I26
To What Extent Does Relative Maturity Affect Test Scores Between Tracked and Untracked Education Systems? Evidence From TIMSS 2019
by Qi Xuan Khoo
Abstract
Most education systems enforce a cutoff birth date for school entry, and some group students based on their perceived ability—a practice known as tracking. While the former policy leads to maturity gaps among early learners, the concomitant performance gaps may or may not be exacerbated by the latter. Analyzing the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 dataset to study how relative maturity affects test scores with tracking, this paper finds that older students outperform their younger peers. This relative maturity test score premium is accentuated by tracking, and these effects are found to be more significant in mathematics than in science.
Robert Garlick, Faculty Advisor
JEL codes: I2, I24, I28
Peer Effects & Differential Attrition: Evidence from Tennessee’s Project STAR
By Sanjay Satish
Abstract
This paper explores the effects of attrition on student development in early education.
It aims to provide evidence that student departure in elementary schools has educational
impacts on the students they leave behind. Utilizing data from Tennessee’s Project STAR
experiment, this paper aims to expand upon the literature of peer effects, as well as attrition,
in public elementary schools. It departs from previous papers by utilizing survival analysis to
determine which characteristics of students prolonged participation in the experiment. Clustering
analysis is subsequently employed to group departed students to better understand
the various channels of attrition present in STAR. It finds that students who left Project
STAR were more likely to be of lower income and lower ability than their peers. This paper
then uses these findings to estimate the peer effects of attrition on students who remained
in the experiment and undertakes a discussion of potential sources of bias in this estimation
and their effects on the explanatory power of peer effects estimates.
Professor Robert Garlick, Faculty Advisor
Professor Michelle Connolly, Faculty Advisor
JEL Classification: I, I21, I26, H4, J13
Revisiting California Proposition 209: Changes in Science Persistence Rates and Overall Graduation Rates
by Anh-Huy Nguyen
Abstract
California Proposition 209 outlawed race-based affirmative action in the University
of California (UC) system in 1998. However, the UC system subsequently shifted towards
race-blind affirmative action by also reweighing factors other than race in the
admissions process. To evaluate the hypothetical changes in the science persistence rate
and graduation rate of all applicants if racial preferences had been removed entirely, I
estimate baseline and counterfactual admissions models using data from between 1995-
1997. Using a general equilibrium framework to fix the total number of admits and
enrollees, I find that the removal of racial preferences leads to a cascade of minority
enrollees into less selective campuses and a surge of non-minority enrollees into more
selective campuses. The improved matching between students and campuses results in
higher science persistence rates and graduation rates across the pool of all applicants.
In particular, the gains are driven by minority students who were admitted under racial
preferences, because the gains from better matching across UC campuses outweigh the
losses from potentially being pushed outside the UC system. Non-minority students
who are originally rejected under racial preferences also benefit, as some are induced
into the system in the counterfactual, where they are more likely to graduate. I also
investigate claims that applicants may have strategically gamed during the admissions
process by misrepresenting their interest in the sciences in order to maximize their
admissions probability. While there exist incentives to apply in different majors across
the campuses, I find evidence that applicants often fail to game optimally, suggesting
that they may not be fully informed of their relative admissions probabilities in the
sciences and non-sciences.
Professor Peter Arcidiacono, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: I23, I28, J24, H75
Withdrawal: The Difficulty of Transitioning to a Cashless Economy
By Praneeth Kandula
Abstract
In 2021, modern payment methods such as mobile pay have increased nearly fivefold since their introduction in 2015. This shift to an increasingly cashless, digital economy has been marked by inequitable financial and technological divides. Historically, Black and Latino adults have had less access to financial systems and are less likely to own traditional computers and home broadband. Without rectifying these issues, a cashless, digital economy only serves to widen divides. Using data from the Diary of Consumer Payment, this study descriptively examines the use of cash and alternative payment methods by different racial and ethnic groups from 2015 through 2020. I also extend this effort to address the effects of COVID-19. I find that racial differences not only exist but also the gap between Black and Latino adults and White adults grows between 2015 and 2019. Still, this paper finds that in 2020 the likelihood to employ cash for a transaction falls for Black adults but not for Latino adults. COVID-19 has been a critical driver of change, forcing both consumers and corporations to shift to a more digital-centric economy. While there have been positive shifts for Black adults, policy ensuring that all racial groups have access to the necessary financial and digital networks will be critical in establishing an equitable economy moving forward.
Professor Lisa A. Gennetian, Faculty Advisor
Professor Michelle P. Connolly, Faculty Advisor
JEL Classification: D1 D31 G20 I24 J11
Long-term Benefits of Breastfeeding: Impact on Education in Indonesia
By Natalie Gulrajani
Abstract
Healthy breastfeeding behaviors have been shown to produce many long-term health benefits
including improved cognition. This study uses data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey
(IFLS) to assess the longitudinal impact of exclusive breastfeeding duration and early life
breastfeeding practices on education. Though a positive correlation was found between
breastfeeding duration and years of schooling in naïve regressions, the significance and
magnitude of this effect decreased when household fixed effects were added. A stronger
correlation was found between early life breastfeeding and schooling, with income-stratified
results demonstrating that poorer households are potentially subject to greater benefits.
Professor Erica Field, Faculty Advisor
JEL classification: I0; I12; I21
Predictors of Student Loan Repayments: A Comparison Between Public, Private For-Profit and Private Nonprofit Schools
by Mannat Bakshi and Arjun Ahluwalia
Using a sample of over 3,500 colleges from the College Scorecard Dataset , we investigate the association of average federal student loan repayment rates with institutional, regional, and student demographic characteristics of colleges. We consider educational cohorts from 2010 to 2016 at public, private for-profit, and private non-profit institutions. Our data do not allow us to see individual student characteristics, hence we control for traits of the average student in each college and focus on institutional traits that impact repayment rates. Our controls for demographics are consistent with prior research on student loan repayment rates (Lochner and Monge-Naranjo, 2014; Kelchen and Li, 2017).
We ran a Random Effects panel regression to determine how institutional, regional, and student demographic characteristics impact repayment rates. We see an important influence of the institution attended. Institution selectivity (lower admission and withdrawal rates) is associated with higher average repayment. Furthermore, the highest degree awarded is a more significant variable when it comes to describing the variation in repayment rates for public schools; private for-profit schools exhibit lower repayment rates and private nonprofit schools exhibit higher repayment rates regardless of the highest degree awarded. This could be due to a combination of signaling and screening effects. Local income and unemployment impact repayment for the average student in public and for-profit schools, but not in private non-profit schools.
A noticeable institutional finding is that, even after controlling for average school demographics, for-profit schools exhibit lower repayment rates across all types of degree-granting programs. Attending a for-profit school may be a negative signal of ability or value to potential employers. Median family income positively affects repayment twice as much for for-profit schools compared to other school types. These finding on for-profit institutions help explain Obama’s “crack down on for-profit career training colleges” (Simon & Emma, 2014).
Advisor: Professor Genna Miller | JEL Codes: I2, I22, I26
