TY - JOUR
T1 - Intended college attendance
T2 - Evidence from an experiment on college returns and costs
AU - Bleemer, Zachary
AU - Zafar, Basit
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2018/1
Y1 - 2018/1
N2 - We conduct an information experiment about college returns and costs embedded within a representative survey of US household heads. Baseline perceptions of college costs and benefits are substantially biased, with larger biases among lower-income and non-college households. Respondents are randomly exposed to objective information about average college “returns” or costs. We find a significant impact of the “returns” experiment, persisting in a follow-up survey two months later: intended college attendance expectations increase by about 0.2 of the standard deviation in the baseline likelihood, and gaps by household income or parents’ education decline by 20–30%. We find no impact of the cost information treatment. Further analysis supports the information's salience, as opposed to information-based updating, as the main channel through which the returns intervention impacts intentions.
AB - We conduct an information experiment about college returns and costs embedded within a representative survey of US household heads. Baseline perceptions of college costs and benefits are substantially biased, with larger biases among lower-income and non-college households. Respondents are randomly exposed to objective information about average college “returns” or costs. We find a significant impact of the “returns” experiment, persisting in a follow-up survey two months later: intended college attendance expectations increase by about 0.2 of the standard deviation in the baseline likelihood, and gaps by household income or parents’ education decline by 20–30%. We find no impact of the cost information treatment. Further analysis supports the information's salience, as opposed to information-based updating, as the main channel through which the returns intervention impacts intentions.
KW - College enrollment
KW - College returns and costs
KW - Information
KW - Subjective expectations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85034756014&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.11.002
DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.11.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85034756014
SN - 0047-2727
VL - 157
SP - 184
EP - 211
JO - Journal of Public Economics
JF - Journal of Public Economics
ER -