This paper shows that the local availability of universities acted as a catalyst in the catch-up of women in higher education that has been documented for developed countries in the latter half of the 20th century. It uses the foundation of new universities in the 1960s and 1970s in West German...

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were approximately 7.7 million student loan borrowers in default on approximately $168 billion in federally-held student loans, including Federal Family Education Loans (“FFEL”) and Direct loans. Though borrowers have in theory been able to get out of...

Many borrowers with federal student loans also carry balances on loans owed to private companies. Students take out private loans to cover the cost of education, to pay for living expenses while in school, and in response to aggressive marketing by for-profit schools and private lenders. Unlike...

I wrote five years ago that “There is no amount of incremental reform that can fix the broken government student loan system. The time for tweaking is long past.” At that time, the Bipartisan Policy Center listed the following failings of student debt: “Too many students rely excessively...

This paper studies the causal impacts of public universities on the outcomes of their marginally admitted students. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of American public university students, to systematically...

Transparency vs. opacity is an important dimension of college admission policy. Colleges may gain useful information from a holistic review of applicants' materials, but in doing so may contribute to uncertainty that discourages potential applicants with poor information. This paper investigates...

We use admissions lotteries to estimate the effects of attendance at Boston's charter high schools on college preparation, college attendance, and college choice. Charter attendance increases pass rates on the high-stakes exam required for high school graduation in Massachusetts, with especially...

The scientific sphere saw continuation of the measures initiated between 2009 and 2010. The Russian research complex displayed certain positive shifts, though they fell short of being of magnitude sufficient to be mirrored by statistics. There also were alarm bells: specifically, against the...

In 2012 the subject of innovation development formed one of the top public policy priorities. That manifested itself in the rise of new initiatives on support of university research, development of interaction between science and business, and encouragement of the latter’s innovation...

In the wake of the global crisis the issue of innovation development is mentioned more of-ten than in previous years, despite the fact that "innovation" context has greatly contrasted with the actual results of the formation of the national innovation economy. The principal difference last year...