Raising College Access and Completion : How Much Can Free College Help?
Free college proposals have become increasingly popular in many countries, yet cross-country evidence indicates that higher college subsidies raise enrollment but not graduation rates. To capture the evidence and evaluate proposals, this paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of college e...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/589501602005455776/Rising-College-Access-and-Completion-How-Much-Can-Free-College-Help http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34599 |
| Summary: | Free college proposals have become increasingly popular in
many countries, yet cross-country evidence indicates that
higher college subsidies raise enrollment but not graduation
rates. To capture the evidence and evaluate proposals, this
paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of college
enrollment, performance, and graduation. A central piece
of the model, student effort, has a direct effect on class
completion and an indirect effect mitigating the risk of
performing poorly or dropping out. The model is estimated
using rich student-level data from Colombia, and multiple
free college programs are simulated. Among them, universal
free college expands enrollment the most but does not affect
graduation rates, thereby helping explain the evidence. Performance-based
free college, in contrast, raises graduation
rates yet has a smaller enrollment impact |
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