Sandra E. Black

A Family Affair: The Effects of College on Parent and Student Finances

Palaash Bhargava, Sandra E. Black, Jeffrey T. Denning, Robert Fairlie, Oded Gurantz. February 2025

Topics: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary

Tags: College readiness

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… more →
Download 02/2025
Winners and Losers? The Effect of Gaining and Losing Access to Selective Colleges on Education and Labor Market Outcomes

Sandra E. Black, Jeffrey T. Denning, Jesse Rothstein. March 2020

Topics: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary

Tags: Equity, Higher education, Returns to education and skills

Selective college admissions are fundamentally a question of tradeoffs: Given capacity, admitting one student means rejecting another. Research to date has generally estimated average effects of college selectivity, and has been unable to distinguish between the effects on students gaining… more →
Download 03/2020