Low-performing student responses to state merit scholarships

Arbeitspapier

State merit scholarships may affect academic outcomes for low-performing college students, yet low-performers are generally overlooked in existing literature. New Mexico's lottery scholarship provides tuition-free college to residents meeting a uniquely "low-bar" eligibility criteria. Using administrative data, a discontinuity in eligibility rules identifies local average treatment effects on degree completion and course taking behavior for students with below-average college grades. Results suggest a reduction in time-to-degree corresponding to the scholarship's funding cap, with no overall change in degree completion. Despite modest eligibility requirements related to credit completion, the scholarship increased credit completion among low-achieving students. Some students appear to manipulate scholarship eligibility by taking fewer courses or strategically dropping courses during a qualifying semester in order to secure aid. A bounding exercise suggests partial manipulation of eligibility rules results in selection bias which underestimates the true effect of the scholarship on time to degree and credit completion.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Economics Working Paper Series ; No. 2019/02

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General ; Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation ; Educational Finance; Financial Aid ; Higher Education; Research Institutions ; State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
• Subject: higher education ; state merit scholarships ; time to degree ; college completion

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Erwin, Christopher
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
• (where): Auckland
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/242567
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET