By applying a regression discontinuity design to national data of students at four-year colleges, this study identifies the substitution effects of exogenously received increases of grant aid on hours of paid labor, earnings, and borrowing while in college. Results confirm students substitute grant aid for both paid labor and borrowing. An average…

Peers affect individual's productivity in the workforce, in education, and in other team-based tasks. Using large-scale language data from an online college course, we measure the impacts of peer interactions on student learning outcomes and persistence. In our setting, students are quasi-randomly assigned to peers, and as such, we are able to…

Student loans are a crucial aspect of financing a college education for millions of Americans, yet we have surprisingly little empirical evidence concerning individuals' unwillingness to borrow money for educational purposes. This study provides the first large-scale quantitative evidence of levels of loan aversion in the United States. Using…