Investigating the Impact of Financial Aid Policy Shifts on Student Employment

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 78
  In Roundtable Session: Post-Graduation and Labor Market Outcomes

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of funding reduction from Georgia’s HOPE scholarship on student decisions to work while in school. Georgia’s statewide longitudinal data system, GA-AWARDS, allows us to merge student-level postsecondary data with workforce data and determine employment trends among the state’s college students. Using a differences-in-differences research design, we find that students with reduced grant funding were more likely to be employed relative to scholarship recipients that maintained full-tuition funding.

Authors

• Rachana Bhatt, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

• Lori Prince Hagood, University System of Georgia