Grants Versus Loans: The Role of Financial Aid in College Major Choice

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: De Falco, Adriano; Reichlin, Yannick
• 署名单位: University of Bologna; Bocconi University
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaf121
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: Student loans; education; DESIGN

摘要

We analyse whether financing higher education through student loans or grants affects the college major choices of students in Chile where either type of financing is allocated based on a standardised test. Students who are marginally eligible for grants are more likely to enrol in high-paying fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Complementing the reduced-form results, we estimate a discrete choice model on data for narrowly defined higher education programmes. The results indicate that, holding other programme characteristics constant, grant recipients place higher value on fields with high earnings growth potential, while being less concerned about a lower graduation probability.