TY  - JOUR
AB  - We explore the role of defaults and choice architecture on student loan decision-making, experimentally testing the impact pre-populating either decline or accept decisions compared to an active choice, no pre-population, decision. We demonstrate that the default choice presented does influence student loan borrowing decisions. Specifically, compared to active choice, students presented within a pre-populated decline decision were almost five percent less likely to accept all packaged loans and borrowed between 4.6 and 4.8 percent less in federal educational loans. The reductions in borrowing appears to be concentrated within unsubsidized loans with those assigned to the opt-in condition borrowing 8.3 percent less in unsubsidized loans. These changes in borrowing did not induce substitution towards private or Parent PLUS loans nor did they negatively impact enrollment, academic performance, or on-campus work outcomes in the same academic year.
AU  - Page, Dennis A. Kramer II
Christina Lamb
Lindsay C.
DA  - April 2021
DO  - 10.26300/xn3f-7n92
PY  - 2021
ST  - The effects of default choice on student loan borrowing: Experimental evidence from a public research university
T2  - EdWorkingPapers.com
TI  - The effects of default choice on student loan borrowing: Experimental evidence from a public research university
UR  - https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai21-382
ID  - 356
ER  -