Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid
In an ongoing evaluation of post-secondary financial aid, we use random assignment to assess the causal effects of large privately-funded aid awards. Here, we compare the unbiased causal effect estimates from our RCT with two types of non-experimental econometric estimates. The first applies a selec...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Economic Association
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109193 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-8956 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6915-9381 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1951-264X |
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| author | Angrist, Joshua Autor, David H Hudson, Sally Lindquist Pallais, Amanda Dawn |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Angrist, Joshua Autor, David H Hudson, Sally Lindquist Pallais, Amanda Dawn |
| author_sort | Angrist, Joshua |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In an ongoing evaluation of post-secondary financial aid, we use random assignment to assess the causal effects of large privately-funded aid awards. Here, we compare the unbiased causal effect estimates from our RCT with two types of non-experimental econometric estimates. The first applies a selection-on-observables assumption in data from an earlier, nonrandomized cohort; the second uses a regression discontinuity design. Selection-on-observables methods generate estimates well below the experimental benchmark. Regression discontinuity estimates are similar to experimental estimates for students near the cutoff, but sensitive to controlling for the running variable, which is unusually coarse. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:39:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109193 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:39:44Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Economic Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1091932022-10-02T03:15:57Z Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid Angrist, Joshua Autor, David H Hudson, Sally Lindquist Pallais, Amanda Dawn Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Angrist, Joshua Autor, David H Hudson, Sally Lindquist Pallais, Amanda Dawn In an ongoing evaluation of post-secondary financial aid, we use random assignment to assess the causal effects of large privately-funded aid awards. Here, we compare the unbiased causal effect estimates from our RCT with two types of non-experimental econometric estimates. The first applies a selection-on-observables assumption in data from an earlier, nonrandomized cohort; the second uses a regression discontinuity design. Selection-on-observables methods generate estimates well below the experimental benchmark. Regression discontinuity estimates are similar to experimental estimates for students near the cutoff, but sensitive to controlling for the running variable, which is unusually coarse. Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation MIT SEII seed fund 2017-05-18T23:30:37Z 2017-05-18T23:30:37Z 2015-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0002-8282 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109193 Angrist, Josh, David Autor, Sally Hudson, and Amanda Pallais. “ Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid † .” American Economic Review 105, no. 5 (May 2015): 502–507. © 2015 American Economic Association https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-8956 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6915-9381 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1951-264X en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20151025 American Economic Review Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Economic Association American Economic Association |
| spellingShingle | Angrist, Joshua Autor, David H Hudson, Sally Lindquist Pallais, Amanda Dawn Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid |
| title | Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid |
| title_full | Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid |
| title_fullStr | Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid |
| title_short | Evaluating Econometric Evaluations of Post-Secondary Aid |
| title_sort | evaluating econometric evaluations of post secondary aid |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109193 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-8956 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6915-9381 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1951-264X |
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