We replicate and extend prior work on Florida’s Bright Futures merit aid scholarship to consider its effect on college enrollment and degree completion. We estimate causal impacts using a regression discontinuity design to exploit SAT thresholds that strongly determine eligibility. We find no positive impacts on attendance or attainment, and instrumental variable results generally reject estimates as small as 1-2 percentage points. Across subgroups, we do find that eligibility slightly reduces six-year associate degree attainment for lower-SES students and may induce small enrollment shifts among Hispanic and White students. Our findings of these minimal-at-best impacts contrast those of prior works, attributable in part to methodological improvements and more robust data, and further underscore the importance of study replication. (JEL: H75, I21, I22, I23, I28)
The Impact of Merit Aid on College Choice and Degree Attainment: Reexamining Florida’s Bright Futures Program
Keywords
Bright Futures; financial aid; merit aid; regression discontinuity; replication
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/515y-rs28
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Gurantz, Oded, and Taylor Odle. (). The Impact of Merit Aid on College Choice and Degree Attainment: Reexamining Florida’s Bright Futures Program. (EdWorkingPaper: -306). Retrieved from
Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/515y-rs28Related Resources from the EdExchange
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