@article{063bde9005ab4b55bc70d91cba5c4f26,
title = "Paralysis by analysis? Effects of information on student loan take-up",
abstract = "Can relevant information influence student borrowing? In a field experiment with a large community college, we send emails about federal student loans to students who have received financial aid offers but have not made a borrowing decision. A treatment reminding students that they need not borrow the maximum amount of available loan aid has no effect. Treatments referencing amounts borrowed by recent graduates shift students from borrowing the maximum amount to not borrowing. Consistent with the hypothesis that students experience cognitive overload when presented with multiple loan amounts, the response is largest among low-performing students and arises from inaction.",
author = "Marx, {Benjamin M.} and Turner, {Lesley J.}",
note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to the Russell Sage Foundation for financial support and to the anonymous community college for carrying out the experiment and providing the data used in this study. We thank Drew Anderson, Eric Bettinger, Jeff Denning, Mark Long, Richard Thaler, and seminar participants at the NBER Economics of Education Fall 2016 Program Meeting, the 2019 annual conference of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, Advances with Field Experiments 2019, Florida State University, and Texas A&M University for helpful comments. Yuci Chen provided excellent research assistance. The project was approved by the UIUC Institutional Review Board under protocol #15366. Funding Information: We are grateful to the Russell Sage Foundation for financial support and to the anonymous community college for carrying out the experiment and providing the data used in this study. We thank Drew Anderson, Eric Bettinger, Jeff Denning, Mark Long, Richard Thaler, and seminar participants at the NBER Economics of Education Fall 2016 Program Meeting, the 2019 annual conference of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, Advances with Field Experiments 2019, Florida State University, and Texas A&M University for helpful comments. Yuci Chen provided excellent research assistance. The project was approved by the UIUC Institutional Review Board under protocol #15366. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102010",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "77",
journal = "Economics of Education Review",
issn = "0272-7757",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}