IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v37y2018i1p136-166.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Financial Aid Help to Address the Growing Need for STEM Education? The Effects of Need†Based Grants on the Completion of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Courses and Degrees

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin L. Castleman
  • Bridget Terry Long
  • Zachary Mabel

Abstract

Although workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields earn above†average wages, the number of college graduates prepared for STEM jobs lags behind employer demand. A key question is how to recruit and retain college students in STEM majors. We offer new evidence on the role of financial aid in supporting STEM attainment. Exploiting a regression discontinuity that allows for causal inference, we find that eligibility for need†based financial aid increased STEM credit completion by 20 to 35 percent among academically†ready students in a large, public higher education system. These results appear to be driven by shifting students into STEM†heavy course loads, suggesting aid availability impacts the academic choices students make after deciding to enroll. We also find suggestive evidence that aid offers increase degree attainment in STEM fields, although we cannot rule out null impacts on STEM degree production.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin L. Castleman & Bridget Terry Long & Zachary Mabel, 2018. "Can Financial Aid Help to Address the Growing Need for STEM Education? The Effects of Need†Based Grants on the Completion of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Courses and Degrees," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(1), pages 136-166, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:37:y:2018:i:1:p:136-166
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.22039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22039
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.22039?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Onda, Masayuki & Seyler, Edward, 2020. "English learners reclassification and academic achievement: Evidence from Minnesota," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Yanqing Ding & Wei Li & Xin Li & Yinduo Wu & Jin Yang & Xiaoyang Ye, 2021. "Heterogeneous Major Preferences for Extrinsic Incentives: The Effects of Wage Information on the Gender Gap in STEM Major Choice," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(8), pages 1113-1145, December.
    3. Margaret E. Blume‐Kohout & Jacob P. Scott, 2022. "Incentivizing STEM participation: Evidence from the SMART Grant Program," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(2), pages 373-405, October.
    4. Serena Canaan & Antoine Deeb & Pierre Mouganie, 2022. "Adviser Value Added and Student Outcomes: Evidence from Randomly Assigned College Advisers," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 151-191, November.
    5. Richard W. Patterson & Nolan G. Pope & Aaron Feudo, 2019. "Timing is Everything: Evidence from College Major Decisons," CESifo Working Paper Series 7448, CESifo.
    6. Drew M. Anderson & Katharine M. Broton & Sara Goldrick‐Rab & Robert Kelchen, 2020. "Experimental Evidence on the Impacts of Need‐Based Financial Aid: Longitudinal Assessment of the Wisconsin Scholars Grant," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 720-739, June.
    7. Espahbodi, Arya & Espahbodi, Linda & Espahbodi, Reza & Walker, Rosemary & Thomas White, G., 2023. "Determinants of CPA exam performance," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Christine Baker-Smith & Kallie Clark & Sara Goldrick-Rab & Christel Perkins & Douglas A. Webber & Travis T. York, 2023. "Affording Degree Completion: An Experimental Study of Completion Grants at Accessible Public Universities," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-047, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

    More about this item

    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:wly:jpamgt:v:37:y:2018:i:1:p:136-166. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    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.