This research examines the short term success of a postsecondary federal financial aid program, the SMART Grant, designed to increase this stock of scientific human capital. An exploration of the success of this program provides the opportunity to address two critically important research questions. Do financial incentives encourage students to…

Since 1964, the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program has provided funds to subsidize the wages of student employees, but it has never been studied directly. I use an instrumental variables difference-in-difference framework with administrative data from West Virginia to identify causal effects, comparing eligible and ineligible students across…

The three basic kinds of federal student financial aid to college students are described: federal student loans (direct lending, both subsidized and unsubsidized); campus-based aid (Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, work-study programs, and Perkins Loans); and Pell Grants. Some details of program design and recent changes are noted.…

This Congressionally requested memorandum compares the Pell Grant provisions contained in the recent new versions proposed by the Senate and House with the current program. The first section describes the program, pointing out that students' eligibility for Pell Grants and the size of their awards depend on three factors: the amount they and their…