Intended college attendance: Evidence from an experiment on college returns and costs

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bleemer, Zachary; Zafar, Basit
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.11.002
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 184-211
• 关键词: college enrollment; College returns and costs; INFORMATION; subjective expectations

摘要

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.