Faculty & Research Published Research Research Education Facet Area of Focus - Research Craig Volden Christopher J. Ruhm Bala Mulloth Eileen Chou Benjamin Castleman Edgar O. Olsen Sophie Trawalter Benjamin Converse Christine Mahoney Timothy Wilson Adam Leive James H. Wyckoff William Shobe Charles Holt Daniel W. Player Daphna Bassok Harry Harding Jay Shimshack Jeanine Braithwaite John Pepper Richard Bonnie David Leblang John Holbein Leora Friedberg Molly Lipscomb James Savage Sebastian Tello-Trillo Frederick P. Hitz Gabrielle Adams Gerald Warburg Isaac Mbiti Paul S. Martin Raymond C. Scheppach Ruth Gaare Bernheim Andrew S. Pennock Gerald Higginbotham Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi Jennifer Lawless Michele Claibourn Noah Myung Philip Potter (-) Sarah Turner Facet People - Research Facet UVA Partner - Research Working Paper Education Waivers for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program: Who Would Benefit from Takeup? Authors: Sarah Turner, Diego A. Briones, Nathaniel Ruby This research identifies more than $100 billion in loan forgiveness available to as many as 3.5 million borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver program. Potential beneficiaries of this initiative are disproportionately employed in occupations like teaching and health care. However, the distribution of potential benefits of the PSLF waiver depends critically on the extent to which those with high income or advanced degrees are differentially likely to take-up benefits conditional on eligibility. Learn more Working Paper Education Progressivity of Pricing at US Public Universities Authors: Sarah Turner, Emily E. Cook New research describes recent shifts in net tuition by family income and institution type and assesses the role of changes in state funding in generating these shifts. Learn more Published Research Education Limited Supply and Lagging Enrollment: Production Technologies and Enrollment Changes at Community Colleges during the Pandemic Authors: Sarah Turner, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach Weak labor markets typically lead young workers to invest in skills. High unemployment during COVID diverged from prior downturns: enrollment at community colleges dropped by 9.5 percent between 2019 and 2020, with the drop larger among men. Learn more Published Research The Right Way to Capture College “Opportunity”: Popular Measures Can Paint the Wrong Picture of Low-Income Student Enrollment Authors: Caroline Hoxby, Sarah Turner Higher education may be one of the most important channels through which people can attain improved life outcomes based on their merit rather than family background. If qualified students from lower-income families are underrepresented in higher education, there is potentially a failure not just in equity but in economic efficiency as well. Learn more Published Research Education Pensions and K-12 Teacher Retirement: An Analysis Using National Teacher Data Authors: Leora Friedberg, Sarah Turner The retirement security landscape has changed drastically for most workers over the last thirty years – except for public school teachers and other state and local government employees. Many private-sector employers have stopped offering traditional retirement plans, while most state and local employees remain covered by defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Learn more Published Research Cohort Crowding: How Resources Affect Collegiate Attainment Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound Analyses of college attainment typically focus on factors affecting enrollment demand, including the financial attractiveness of a college education and the availability of financial aid, while implicitly assuming that resources available per student on the supply side of the market are elastically supplied. The higher education market in the United States is dominated by public and non-profit production, and colleges and universities receive considerable subsidies from state, federal, and private sources. Learn more Published Research Race, Income and College in 25 Years: Evaluating Justice O'Connor's Conjecture Authors: Sarah Turner, Alan Krueger, Jesse Rothstein The rate at which racial gaps in pre-collegiate academic achievement can plausibly be expected to erode is a matter of great interest and much uncertainty. In her opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, Supreme Court Justice O’Connor took a firm stand: “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary …” Learn more Published Research Opportunities for Low Income Students at Top Colleges and Universities: Policy Initiatives and the Distribution of Students Authors: Sarah Turner, Amanada Pallais Whether the nation’s most selective and resource-intensive colleges and universities serve as “engines of opportunity” rather than “bastions of privilege” depends on the extent to which they increase the educational attainment of students from the most economically disadvantaged backgrounds (Bowen, Kurzweil, and Tobin, 2005). Less than 11 percent of first-year students matriculating at 20 highly-selective institutions are from the bottom quartile of the income distribution, leading to significant concerns from higher education leaders and policy makers about the role of higher education in promoting intergenerational mobility. Learn more Published Research Trade in University Training: Cross State Variation in the Production and Use of College Educated Labor Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound, Jeffrey Groen, Gabor Kezdi The main question addressed in this analysis is how the production of undergraduate and graduate education at the state level affects the local stock of university-educated workers. The potential mobility of highly skilled workers implies that the number of college students graduating in an area need not affect the number of college graduates living in the area. Learn more Published Research Closing the Gap or Widening the Divide: The Effects of the G.I. Bill and World War II on the Educational Outcomes of Black Americans Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound The effects of the G.I. Bill on collegiate attainment may have differed for black and white Americans owing to differential returns to education and differences in opportunities at colleges and universities, with men in the South facing explicitly segregated colleges. The empirical evidence suggests that World War II and the availability of G.I. benefits had a substantial and positive impact on the educational attainment of white men and black men born outside the South. Learn more Published Research Going to War and Going to College: Did World War II and the G.I. Bill Increase Educational Attainment for Returning Veterans? Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound The end of World War II brought a flood of returning veterans to America’s colleges and universities. Yet, despite widespread rhetoric about the democratization’ of higher education that came with this large pool of students, there is little evidence about the question of whether military service, combined with the availability of post-war educational benefits, led these men to increase their investments in education - particularly at the college and university level. Learn more Published Research Back to School: Federal Student Aid Policy and Adult College Enrollment Authors: Sarah Turner, Neil S. Seftor Much of the research examining the question of how federal financial aid affects decisions to enroll in college has focused on the behavior of students in the relatively narrow range immediately following high school graduation, leaving unanswered the question of how changes in the availability of aid affect the behavior of older students. Learn more
Working Paper Education Waivers for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program: Who Would Benefit from Takeup? Authors: Sarah Turner, Diego A. Briones, Nathaniel Ruby This research identifies more than $100 billion in loan forgiveness available to as many as 3.5 million borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver program. Potential beneficiaries of this initiative are disproportionately employed in occupations like teaching and health care. However, the distribution of potential benefits of the PSLF waiver depends critically on the extent to which those with high income or advanced degrees are differentially likely to take-up benefits conditional on eligibility. Learn more
Working Paper Education Progressivity of Pricing at US Public Universities Authors: Sarah Turner, Emily E. Cook New research describes recent shifts in net tuition by family income and institution type and assesses the role of changes in state funding in generating these shifts. Learn more
Published Research Education Limited Supply and Lagging Enrollment: Production Technologies and Enrollment Changes at Community Colleges during the Pandemic Authors: Sarah Turner, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach Weak labor markets typically lead young workers to invest in skills. High unemployment during COVID diverged from prior downturns: enrollment at community colleges dropped by 9.5 percent between 2019 and 2020, with the drop larger among men. Learn more
Published Research The Right Way to Capture College “Opportunity”: Popular Measures Can Paint the Wrong Picture of Low-Income Student Enrollment Authors: Caroline Hoxby, Sarah Turner Higher education may be one of the most important channels through which people can attain improved life outcomes based on their merit rather than family background. If qualified students from lower-income families are underrepresented in higher education, there is potentially a failure not just in equity but in economic efficiency as well. Learn more
Published Research Education Pensions and K-12 Teacher Retirement: An Analysis Using National Teacher Data Authors: Leora Friedberg, Sarah Turner The retirement security landscape has changed drastically for most workers over the last thirty years – except for public school teachers and other state and local government employees. Many private-sector employers have stopped offering traditional retirement plans, while most state and local employees remain covered by defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Learn more
Published Research Cohort Crowding: How Resources Affect Collegiate Attainment Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound Analyses of college attainment typically focus on factors affecting enrollment demand, including the financial attractiveness of a college education and the availability of financial aid, while implicitly assuming that resources available per student on the supply side of the market are elastically supplied. The higher education market in the United States is dominated by public and non-profit production, and colleges and universities receive considerable subsidies from state, federal, and private sources. Learn more
Published Research Race, Income and College in 25 Years: Evaluating Justice O'Connor's Conjecture Authors: Sarah Turner, Alan Krueger, Jesse Rothstein The rate at which racial gaps in pre-collegiate academic achievement can plausibly be expected to erode is a matter of great interest and much uncertainty. In her opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, Supreme Court Justice O’Connor took a firm stand: “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary …” Learn more
Published Research Opportunities for Low Income Students at Top Colleges and Universities: Policy Initiatives and the Distribution of Students Authors: Sarah Turner, Amanada Pallais Whether the nation’s most selective and resource-intensive colleges and universities serve as “engines of opportunity” rather than “bastions of privilege” depends on the extent to which they increase the educational attainment of students from the most economically disadvantaged backgrounds (Bowen, Kurzweil, and Tobin, 2005). Less than 11 percent of first-year students matriculating at 20 highly-selective institutions are from the bottom quartile of the income distribution, leading to significant concerns from higher education leaders and policy makers about the role of higher education in promoting intergenerational mobility. Learn more
Published Research Trade in University Training: Cross State Variation in the Production and Use of College Educated Labor Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound, Jeffrey Groen, Gabor Kezdi The main question addressed in this analysis is how the production of undergraduate and graduate education at the state level affects the local stock of university-educated workers. The potential mobility of highly skilled workers implies that the number of college students graduating in an area need not affect the number of college graduates living in the area. Learn more
Published Research Closing the Gap or Widening the Divide: The Effects of the G.I. Bill and World War II on the Educational Outcomes of Black Americans Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound The effects of the G.I. Bill on collegiate attainment may have differed for black and white Americans owing to differential returns to education and differences in opportunities at colleges and universities, with men in the South facing explicitly segregated colleges. The empirical evidence suggests that World War II and the availability of G.I. benefits had a substantial and positive impact on the educational attainment of white men and black men born outside the South. Learn more
Published Research Going to War and Going to College: Did World War II and the G.I. Bill Increase Educational Attainment for Returning Veterans? Authors: Sarah Turner, John Bound The end of World War II brought a flood of returning veterans to America’s colleges and universities. Yet, despite widespread rhetoric about the democratization’ of higher education that came with this large pool of students, there is little evidence about the question of whether military service, combined with the availability of post-war educational benefits, led these men to increase their investments in education - particularly at the college and university level. Learn more
Published Research Back to School: Federal Student Aid Policy and Adult College Enrollment Authors: Sarah Turner, Neil S. Seftor Much of the research examining the question of how federal financial aid affects decisions to enroll in college has focused on the behavior of students in the relatively narrow range immediately following high school graduation, leaving unanswered the question of how changes in the availability of aid affect the behavior of older students. Learn more