IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v60y2025i2p327-370.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Need-Based Financial Aid on Employment and Earnings: Experimental Evidence from the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars

Author

Listed:
  • Deven Carlson
  • Alex Schmidt
  • Sarah Souders
  • Barbara Wolfe

Abstract

We experimentally estimate the effects of a need-based financial aid offer on students’ annual in-state employment and earnings up to eight years after the initial offer. For students in four-year universities, we show the aid offer to reduce employment and earnings throughout the period we study but provide evidence of increased effort on coursework during students, in-college years. We examine the role of outstate migration and reduced loan debt in generating the negative effects in students’ post-college years. We find no significant effects of the aid offer on the labor market outcomes of individuals in two-year institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Deven Carlson & Alex Schmidt & Sarah Souders & Barbara Wolfe, 2025. "The Effects of Need-Based Financial Aid on Employment and Earnings: Experimental Evidence from the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 60(2), pages 327-370.
  • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:60:y:2025:i:2:p:327-370
    Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0121-11458R1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/60/2/327
    Download Restriction: A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    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:uwp:jhriss:v:60:y:2025:i:2:p:327-370. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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.