As part of the Inequality Seminar Series, the Stone Centre is happy to announce Sandra Black as one of our upcoming seminar speakers. Black is a Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She will be presenting her paper, titled “A Family Affair: The Effects of College on Parent and Student Finances.”
Abstract
Paying for college is often a family affair, with both parents and students contributing. We study the effects of college on family finances using administrative data on the universe of federal aid applicants in California linked to credit records. We provide the first comprehensive analysis of how both students and their parents use debt with college attendance and how prices affect those decisions. We start by using an event-study framework to explore how parents’ use of debt and credit outcomes change after their child first submits a federal aid application for college enrollment. While total debt does not change, higher-income parents shift balances from other debt to educational loans. We find that lower-income parents take out more education loans, experience less delinquency on non-educational debt, and see their credit scores rise. We then use discontinuities in eligibility for generous financial aid to test how an exogenous change in the price of college affects parental debt and financial health. We find that parents finance increases in the price of college through educational loans as well as home equity loans. Higher prices increase parental delinquency on debt. The findings highlight an important channel by which college and its rising cost may spill over into the broader financial health of families and economy.
Event Details
Date: April 23, 2025
Time: 3:30 – 5:00pm
Location: Iona 533, 6000 Iona Dr, Vancouver, BC
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Sandra Black is Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She received her B.A. from UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. Since that time, she worked as an Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and an Assistant, Associate, and ultimately Professor in the Department of Economics at UCLA, and held the Audre and Bernard Centennial Chair in Economics and Public Affairs in the Department of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin before arriving at Columbia University. She has served as an Editor of the Journal of Labor Economics as well as a Co-Editor and Editor of the Journal of Human Resources. Dr. Black is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She served as a Member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from August 2015-January 2017. Her research focuses on the role of early life experiences on the long-run outcomes of children, as well as issues of gender and discrimination.