Student Debt and Labor Market Outcomes

We study the impact of student debt on various labor market outcomes, namely, labor market income, hourly wages, hours worked, and probability of full-time employment. Using data from the NLSY97 surveys and a difference-in-difference approach, we find statistically significant differences in labor market outcomes for individuals who received a student loan versus those who received no student loan. Our findings are that the difference in income post-college enrollment is 8-9 percent higher for individuals that received a student loan relative to individuals that did not. We find evidence that this higher income is due to higher work hours rather than higher wage rates. We also find that the difference in full-time employment, post-college, is 5 percentage points higher for individuals that received a student loan when compared to those that did not