COLLEGE COST AND TIME TO COMPLETE A DEGREE: EVIDENCE FROM TUITION DISCONTINUITIES

摘要

$1University of Torino, Collegio Carlo Alberto, CEPR, and IZA$2Bocconi University, MIT, NBER, and CEPR$3University of Bologna, CEPR, CESifo, and IZA$4University of Padova and IRVAPP.; University tuition typically remains constant throughout the years of enrollment while delayed degree completion is increasingly a problem for academic institutions around the world. Theory suggests that if continuation tuition were raised, the probability of late graduation would be reduced. Using a regression discontinuity design on data from Bocconi University in Italy, we show that a 1,000 euro increase in continuation tuition reduces the probability of late graduation by 5.2% when the benchmark probability is 80%. This decline is not associated with an increase in the dropout rate or a fall in the quality of students performance.