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Student debt incidence: recent data and conceptual issues

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  • Jordan B. Manes
  • Emily Moschini
  • Tom Phelan

Abstract

In recent years, the rising level of student debt has led to calls for increased government assistance in the form of partial or full student debt cancellation. In this Commentary, we use the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to study the incidence of student debt and cancellation benefits along quantiles of household income, net worth, and our estimate of lifetime wealth. We show that student debt is highly concentrated among households with low net worth, but much more evenly distributed across income and lifetime wealth. We then highlight several challenges in using such statistics to draw conclusions about whether cancellation will ultimately increase or decrease inequality in lifetime wealth, and we outline open questions for future research. Replication materials for this Commentary may be found at https://github.com/tphelanECON/student_debt_SCF.

Suggested Citation

  • Jordan B. Manes & Emily Moschini & Tom Phelan, 2022. "Student debt incidence: recent data and conceptual issues," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 2022(16), December.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcec:95301
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-ec-202216
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Neil Bhutta & Jesse Bricker & Andrew C. Chang & Lisa J. Dettling & Sarena Goodman & Alice Henriques Volz & Joanne W. Hsu & Kevin B. Moore & Sarah Reber & Richard Windle, 2020. "Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2016 to 2019: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 106(5), pages 1-42, September.
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