@EdWorkingPaper{ai24-1108,
title = "Buying time: Financial aid allows college students to work less while enrolled",
author = "Drew M. Anderson, Melanie A. Zaber",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "1108",
year = "2024",
month = "December",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai24-1108",
abstract = {Many empirical studies have established that financial aid improves college attainment. Few have been able to test why. This study used administrative records of employment and earnings to get a more complete picture of students’ finances during college and test one potential mechanism, that financial aid buys students time by allowing them to work less in off-campus jobs. We studied recipients of New Jersey’s need-based Tuition Aid Grant (TAG). We used the eligibility cutoffs of TAG to identify groups of otherwise similar students who received sharply different amounts of aid. A prior study took the same approach and found that TAG increased on-time graduation rates from public universities. At these schools, 80% of TAG recipients worked at some point during the year. We found that when students received additional aid, on average they reduced earnings dollar for dollar.},
}