IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedlrv/y2013iseptemberp405-424nv.95no.5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is student debt jeopardizing the short-term financial health of U.S. households?

Author

Listed:
  • William Elliott
  • IlSung Nam

Abstract

In this study, the authors use the Survey of Consumer Finances to determine whether student loans are associated with household net worth. They find that median 2009 net worth ($117,700) for households with no outstanding student loan debt is nearly three times higher than for households with outstanding student loan debt ($42,800). Further, multivariate statistics indicate that households with outstanding student loan debt and a median 2007 net worth of $128,828 incur a loss of about 54 percent of net worth in 2009 compared with households with similar net worth levels but no student loan debt over the same period. The main policy implication of this study is that outstanding student debt may jeopardize the short-run financial health of households. However, this topic is complex and more research is needed before suggesting policy prescriptions.

Suggested Citation

  • William Elliott & IlSung Nam, 2013. "Is student debt jeopardizing the short-term financial health of U.S. households?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Sep, pages 405-424.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlrv:y:2013:i:september:p:405-424:n:v.95no.5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/review/13/09/Elliott.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keister,Lisa A., 2000. "Wealth in America," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521627511, September.
    2. Minicozzi, Alexandra, 2005. "The short term effect of educational debt on job decisions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 417-430, August.
    3. Gicheva, Dora, 2011. "Does the Student-Loan Burden Weigh into the Decision to Start a Family?," UNCG Economics Working Papers 11-14, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    4. Keister,Lisa A., 2000. "Wealth in America," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521621687, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Margaret S. Sherraden & Michal Grinstein-Weiss, 2015. "Creating Financial Capability in the Next Generation: An Introduction to the Special Issue," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 1-12, March.
    2. William Elliott & Michal Grinstein-Weiss & Melinda Lewis & IlSung Nam, 2014. "Student Loan Debt: Can Parental College Savings Help?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 96(4), pages 331-357.
    3. Jinhee Kim & Swarn Chatterjee, 2019. "Student Loans, Health, and Life Satisfaction of US Households: Evidence from a Panel Study," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 36-50, March.
    4. Despard, Mathieu R. & Perantie, Dana & Taylor, Samuel & Grinstein-Weiss, Michal & Friedline, Terri & Raghavan, Ramesh, 2016. "Student debt and hardship: Evidence from a large sample of low- and moderate-income households," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 8-18.
    5. Berrak Bahadir & Dora Gicheva, 2022. "Macroeconomic Implications of Student Debt: A State‐Level Analysis," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(8), pages 2273-2300, December.
    6. Qun Zhang & Hyungsoo Kim, 2019. "American Young Adults’ Debt and Psychological Distress," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 22-35, March.
    7. Zhan, Min & Xiang, Xiaoling & Elliott, William, 2016. "Education loans and wealth building among young adults," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 67-75.
    8. José Alberto Fuinhas & Victor Moutinho & Estefano Silva, 2019. "Delinquency and Default in USA Student Debt as a Proportional Response to Unemployment and Average Debt per Borrower," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-16, October.
    9. Zhan, Min & Xiang, Xiaoling, 2018. "Education loans and asset building among black and Hispanic young adults," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 121-127.
    10. William Elliott & Melinda Lewis, 2015. "Student Debt Effects On Financial Well-Being: Research And Policy Implications," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 614-636, September.
    11. Ray Boshara & William R. Emmons, 2015. "A Balance Sheet Perspective on Financial Success: Why Starting Early Matters," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 267-298, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhan, Min & Xiang, Xiaoling & Elliott, William, 2016. "Education loans and wealth building among young adults," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 67-75.
    2. Pedro R. D. Bom & Aitor Goti, 2018. "Public Capital and the Labor Income Share," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Meta Brown & Andrew F. Haughwout & Donghoon Lee & Wilbert Van der Klaauw, 2011. "Do we know what we owe? A comparison of borrower- and lender-reported consumer debt," Staff Reports 523, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    4. Paula Almeida & Eunice Ramos Lopes & Celio Goncalo Marques & Jorge Simoes & Fatima Pedro, 2017. "The dynamization of Higher Education Institutions for the creation of Tourism Companies in Portugal," Tourism Research Institute, Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 17(1), pages 106-118, June.
    5. Michelle Maroto, 2018. "Saving, Sharing, or Spending? The Wealth Consequences of Raising Children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2257-2282, December.
    6. Wim Naudé, 2007. "Peace, Prosperity, and Pro-Growth Entrepreneurship," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2007-02, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Tackie, Nii O. & Aboagye, Judith N. & Johnson, Gwendolyn J. & Braxton, Millicent & Hunt-Haralson, LaTanya & Wall, Gertrude D., 2013. "The Impact Of Selected Socioeconomic Factors On Asset Building In Rural Communities," Professional Agricultural Workers Journal (PAWJ), Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, vol. 1(1), pages 1-15.
    8. Matthew Painter & Jonathan Vespa, 2012. "The Role of Cohabitation in Asset and Debt Accumulation During Marriage," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 491-506, December.
    9. Sarah Kuypers & Ive Marx & Brian Nolan & Juan C. Palomino, 2022. "Lockdown, Earnings Losses and Household Asset Buffers in Europe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(2), pages 428-470, June.
    10. Joydeep Bhattacharya & Helle Bunzel & Joseph Haslag, 2005. "The non‐monotonic relationship between seigniorage and inequality," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(2), pages 500-519, May.
    11. Aboohamidi, Abbas & Chidmi, Benaissa, 2015. "Changes in the Wealth of American Households during the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis in the U.S," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205451, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Deborah Thorne, 2010. "Extreme Financial Strain: Emergent Chores, Gender Inequality and Emotional Distress," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 185-197, June.
    13. Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero & Luciana Méndez-Errico, 2017. "Does Inequality Foster or Hinder the Growth of Entrepreneurship in the Long Run?," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Research on Economic Inequality, volume 25, pages 299-341, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Carmen Diana Deere & Cheryl Doss, 2006. "The Gender Asset Gap: What Do We Know And Why Does It Matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 1-50.
    15. Michael S. Finke & Sandra J. Huston & Deanna L. Sharpe, 2006. "Balance sheets of early boomers: are they different from pre-boomers?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 542-561, September.
    16. Dalton Conley & Rebecca Glauber, 2005. "Sibling Similarity and Difference in Socioeconomic Status: Life Course and Family Resource Effects," NBER Working Papers 11320, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Michaelides, Marios & Benus, Jacob, 2012. "Are self-employment training programs effective? Evidence from Project GATE," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 695-705.
    18. Megan Thiele & Amy Leisenring, 2022. "Class Incorporated: Stratified Patterns of Academic Engagement at a Highly Selective University," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(2), pages 415-433, June.
    19. Ashok Bardhan & Richard Walker, 2011. "California shrugged: fountainhead of the Great Recession," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 4(3), pages 303-322.
    20. Rauscher, Emily & Friedline, Terri & Banerjee, Mahasweta, 2017. "We're not rich, but we're definitely not poor: Young children's conceptions of social class," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 101-111.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Student loans; Households - Finance;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedlrv:y:2013:i:september:p:405-424:n:v.95no.5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Scott St. Louis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbslus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.