Low income high school graduates are less likely to enroll in four-year colleges than their more advantaged peers. When they do enroll, they are more likely to choose colleges with low graduation rates and higher costs, increasing their risk of leaving college without a degree and with...

Do nudge interventions that have generated positive impacts at a local level maintain efficacy when scaled state or nationwide? What specific mechanisms explain the positive impacts of promising smaller-scale nudges? We investigate, through two randomized controlled trials, the impact of a...

Low income high school graduates are less likely to enroll in four-year colleges than their more advantaged peers. When they do enroll, they are more likely to choose colleges with low graduation rates and higher costs, increasing their risk of leaving college without a degree and with...

Informational and behavioral barriers hinder social benefit take-up. We investigate the impact of mitigating these barriers through providing personalized information on benefits application status and application assistance on filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the...

Nearly half of students who enter college do not graduate and completion disparities by race and income are large. While the majority of efforts to increase degree attainment have focused on supporting students before or soon after they enter college, many students drop out after spending...

Socioeconomic inequalities in college completion have widened over time. A critical question is how to support low-income and first-generation students to achieve college success. We investigate one effort, the Dell Scholars Program, which provides a combination of financial support and...

A growing body of research points to the importance of increasing parental engagement in their children's education. Yet, little research has investigated whether prompting parents to be more involved in the college process leads to improved student outcomes. We investigate, through a...

The government has attempted to ameliorate gaps in college access and success by providing need-based grants, but little evidence exists on the long-term impacts of such aid. We examine the effects of the Florida Student Access Grant (FSAG) using a regression-discontinuity strategy and...

In this study we test whether behaviorally-motivated informational interventions can lead individuals to utilize consumer financial protections. Specifically, we use a large-scale randomized controlled trial to test whether gain/loss framing and reminder messaging can lead servicemembers in the...

We investigate how families resolve an important intrafamily household allocation problem — investing in their children's postsecondary education — in the context of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This legislation allowed service members to transfer education benefits to a family member in exchange...