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Research papers on Student loan debt

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  1. Debt burden after college: the effect of student loan debt on graduates’ employment, additional schooling, family formation, and home ownership

    E. Velez, Melissa Cominole, Alexander Bentz · 2018 · Education Economics · 50 citations

    ABSTRACT This paper measures the effects of undergraduate student loan debt on graduates’ post-college outcomes: employment, additional enrollment, family formation, home ownership, and net worth. The analysis uses data from a nationally representative sample of 2007–08 bachelor’s degree recipients. Because a graduate’s debt burden is not randomly assigned, we use an instrumental variable – enrollment-weighted average in-state tuition over four years – to estimate the effect of debt on post-baccalaureate outcomes while minimizing selection bias. We find that four years after graduating, undergraduate debt is related to borrowers’ earnings, job choice, decisions to marry and have children, an

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  2. Job Search under Debt: Aggregate Implications of Student Loans

    Yan Ji · 2020 · Journal of Monetary Economics · 42 citations

    This paper evaluates the implication of student loan debt on labor market outcomes. I begin by developing a tractable theoretical framework to analytically demonstrate that individuals under the burden of debt tend to search less and end up with lower-paid jobs. I then develop and estimate a quantitative search model with risk-averse agents, on-the-job search, and vacancy creation using NLSY97 data to evaluate the proposed mechanism. My model suggests that, under the standard fixed repayment plan, borrowers’ consumption is reduced due to debt repayment and lower wage income. The latter indirect effect caused by inadequate job search is potentially larger and more persistent than the direct e

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  4. Impact of Service-Based Student Loan Repayment Program on the Primary Care Workforce

    Caitlin Davis, Peter Meyers, A. Bazemore, et al. · 2023 · Annals of Family Medicine · 18 citations

    PURPOSE As the average level of medical education indebtedness rises, physicians look to programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and National Health Service Corps (NHSC) to manage debt burden. Both represent service-dependent loan repayment programs, but the requirements and program outcomes diverge, and assessing the relative uptake of each program may help to inform health workforce policy decisions. We sought to describe variation in the composition of repayment program participant groups and measure relative impact on patient access to care. METHODS In this bivariate analysis, we analyzed data from 10,677 respondents to the American Board of Family Medicine’s National Gra

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  5. Crushing Debt or Savvy Strategy? Financial Literacy and Student Perceptions of their Student Loan Debt

    Gail Markle · 2019 · Journal of Student Financial Aid · 15 citations

    Almost three quarters of American college students use loans to fund their college education, although according to public discourse student debt is a critical problem. Grounded in social reproduction theory and consumer socialization theory this study examines the influence of financial literacy on students’ college financing decisions, perceptions of student loan debt, and education-related behavior. A sample of 429 undergraduate students selected using systematic cluster sampling from a large public university in the southeast completed a survey containing closed and open ended questions. Participants reported moderate levels of financial literacy (72.3%) and student loan awareness (62.7%

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  6. The burden of student loan debt: differences in socioeconomic background and attitudes towards higher education

    Kazuhisa Furuta · 2023 · British Journal of Sociology of Education · 11 citations

    Abstract Increased reliance on student loans to finance higher education (HE) raises concerns about unequal access and repayment burdens. However, who borrows and what motivates students and parents to borrow remain unclear. A longitudinal survey tracked parents and students from high school into their early career to explore the effects of socioeconomic background and attitudes towards HE on taking out student loans in Japan. The findings reveal that, first, families’ economic circumstances are negatively associated with taking out student loans. Second, students, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, may choose a two-year rather than four-year institution to reduce debt. T

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  7. Student Loan Debt: Can Parental College Savings Help?

    William Elliott, Melinda Lewis, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, et al. · 2014 · Canadian Parliamentary Review · 9 citations

    Postsecondary education costs in the United States today are rising with an increasing shift from societal responsibility to individual burden, thereby driving greater student borrowing. Evidence suggests that (i) such student debt may have undesirable educational effects and potentially jeopardize household balance sheets and (ii) student loans may better support educational attainment and economic mobility if accompanied by other, non-repayable financial awards. However, given declines in need-based aid and falling state support for postsecondary costs, policymakers and parents alike have failed to produce a compelling complement to debt-dependent financial aid that is capable of improving

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  8. Understanding Loan Use and Debt Burden Among Low-income and Minority Students at a Large Urban Community College

    Maria Luna-Torres, Lyle McKinney, Catherine Horn, et al. · 2018 · Journal of Student Financial Aid · 8 citations

    This study examined a sample of community college students from a diverse, large urban community college system in Texas. To gain a deeper understanding about the effects of background characteristics on student borrowing behaviors and enrollment outcomes, the study employed descriptive statistics and regression techniques to examine two separate samples of students consisting of 1) loan recipients and 2) non-loan recipients. Chen’s heterogeneous research model served as the conceptual framework in the selection of predictors of interest and outcome variables. This study primarily focused on the relationship between borrowing and enrollment outcomes of low-income and racially/ethnically dive

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  9. The Impact of Student Loan Debt on Civic Engagement: Evidence from the College and Beyond II Dataset

    Osasohan Agbonlahor · 2025 · Education Sciences · 7 citations

    This study examines the relationship between student loan debt and civic engagement among college graduates, with particular attention to differential effects by field of study. Drawing on data from the College and Beyond II dataset, this research analyzes how varying levels of debt burden impact political and community participation among 1673 graduates, including 1059 liberal arts majors and 614 graduates from professional, STEM, and other fields. Employing OLS regression models with multiple measures of debt burden and distinct dimensions of civic engagement, this study finds that both medium and high levels of student loan debt (USD 201–500 monthly and >USD 500 monthly) are associated wi

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  11. How Much Student Loan Debt Is Too Much?

    Keith Greiner · 1996 · Journal of Student Financial Aid · 6 citations

    Student loan debt may be too burdensome for some college graduates. This paper updates the definition of debt burden based on the perception of borrowers and on federal Department of Housing and Urban Development recommended debt level. The results of a survey of Iowa borrowers suggest that about 74% have manageable debt, while 26% have an excessive debt burden. Nevertheless only about 7% can be expected to default. Those with an excessive debt burden may not be in danger of default because of a variety of available repayment strategies.

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  13. Graduating During the Great Recession: The Effects of Student Loan Debt on Early Career Labor Market Outcomes and Graduate School Enrollment

    A. Bernasek, Melanie G. Long · 2021 · Journal of Economic Issues · 4 citations

    Abstract: Total U.S. student loan debt has grown substantially, raising concerns about its impacts. Previous work has suggested that indebted graduates pursue higher-wage careers. However, other trade-offs are possible in adverse economic conditions. Graduates may reduce search effort or hold multiple low-wage jobs to enable debt repayment. This article assesses student debt’s impacts on the outcomes of U.S. bachelor’s degree recipients entering the labor market during the 2008 Recession. We find that indebted students graduating into a recession face the repayment burden with wages that are no higher than average and are less or no more likely to enroll in graduate school.

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  16. Second Chance: Life with Less Student Debt

    Marco Di Maggio, Ankit Kalda, Vincent Yao · 2025 · The Journal of Finance · 2 citations

    We exploit an episode of plausibly random debt discharge due to the loss of paperwork for thousands of defaulted borrowers to examine the effects of private student debt relief on borrower outcomes. We find that borrowers who receive debt relief (treated) experience declines in debt balances and delinquency rates on other accounts, and increases in mobility and income relative to those who bear the costs of default like wage garnishment and collections (control). Borrowers in both groups contribute to our findings through different mechanisms. While our estimates may not directly apply to blanket student loan forgiveness, they speak to the benefits of forgiveness in reducing the conseq

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  18. Financing Higher Education through Student Loans: An Examination of Student Loan Take up and the Debt Burden among Ghanaian Tertiary Students

    Stanley K Dary, Harvey S. James · 2019 · International Journal of African Higher Education · 2 citations

    This article examines the factors influencing demand for student loans from Ghana’s Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) and the loan debt burden at completion using a sample of 400 final-year students in two higher education institutions in the country’s Upper West Region. The results show that both the loan take-up rate and the loan debt burden among students are relatively low. Demand for student loans and the loan debt burden is modeled as probit and Tobit (left censored), respectively. The results reveal that student age, household size, parents’ occupation, salary, number of income sources, and the length of the study programme play a significant role in explaining the demand for student loa

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  19. Addressing the burden of student loan debt: A case-based review of influencing considerations

    Elisa M Greene, W Nathan Greene, William L Greene · 2021 · American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy · 2 citations

    Purpose: The following review is offered as an aid for encouraging deeper understanding by pharmacy graduates of approaches to debt management. Summary: The phenomenon of growing debt for pharmacists and other professionals has been well described. Significant debt is widespread with both pharmacy students and graduates; a recent study described the debt-to-income ratio for pharmacists to have risen by 141% between 2010 and 2016. This increasing debt burden causes significant pressure for these individuals—whether while in training, early in their career, or, increasingly, even in midcareer. Dealing with debt has become a major consideration in the profession. Given that financial education

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  20. Delayed Dreams: How Student Loan Debt Shapes Family Formation and Homeownership Among Liberal Arts Graduates

    Osasohan Agbonlahor · 2025 · International Journal of Education, Culture and Society · 1 citations

    This study examines how educational debt burden influences homeownership and family formation outcomes among college graduates, with particular attention to differences between liberal arts and other disciplines. Drawing on data from the College and Beyond II dataset, which tracks long-term outcomes of higher education, the analysis examines how varying levels of student debt burden and debt-to-income ratios affect the likelihood of homeownership, marriage, and having children. Using logistic regression models with a sample of 1,673 college graduates, the findings show that student loan debt significantly reduces the probability of homeownership across all graduates, with even low debt burde

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  21. AI-Based Predicting Post-Graduation Earnings and Student Loan Debt Burden in Educational Institutions

    T. R, A. Saigal, Aditya Relan, et al. · 2026 · ITM Web of Conferences

    Student and institution-level and policy-level assessments of higher education financial outcomes are important. This study introduces students to a machine-learning approach to predicting after-college earnings and student loan debts based on the College Scorecard "Field of Study" dataset for institutional and program-level information. The workflow consists of two core components: Preprocessing & Feature Engineering, as well as Leakage Prevention & Regression-based Predictive Modeling, all wrapped around a "Smart Predictor" deployment-ready app. A range of financial indicators such as Debt-to-Income (DTI) ratio and Return-on-Investment (ROI) are included, for enhancing interpretability and

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  23. A Rescue or a Trap?—An Analysis of Parent PLUS Student Loans

    Wen-Hua Di, Carla Fletcher, J. Webster · 2022 · Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Working Papers

    Parents taking out loans for their children’s college educations may face an excessive debt burden that jeopardizes their own financial security. This paper examines the experience of Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) borrowers using administrative data from a large student loan guaranty agency. We find that PLUS borrowers are more likely to default if their children attend low-resource institutions, typically ones where lower-income enrollments predominate. Although parent PLUS generally outperforms student loans, PLUS performance is sensitive to program costs during difficult economic times. In contrast, student outcomes depend more on educational outcomes. Interviews with borr

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  24. From College to Homeownership: How Undergraduate Major, Salary, and Student Loan Debt Are Associated with Housing Outcomes in the United States

    R. Chan, A. Li · 2026 · Education Sciences

    Homeownership has become increasingly difficult for many college graduates in the United States. This quantitative study examines the conditional associations among undergraduate major, post-college income, student loan debt, and homeownership using restricted data from the 2021 College and Beyond II Alumni Survey. Grounded in Human Capital Theory and informed by Status Attainment Theory as a secondary interpretive perspective, the study analyzes a sample of 2513 college graduates approximately a decade after degree completion. Logistic regression models examine differences in the conditional odds of homeownership across undergraduate major categories while accounting for post-college econom

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