Category: Education

The Federal Reserve released a new Survey of Consumer Finances that details consumer financial changes from 2007 to 2010. The big story of the report is the extremely painful impact of the Great Recession. From 2007 to 2010, real median family income fell 7.7 percent, and real mean family income fell 11.1 percent. During the… Continue reading New student debt data from Federal Reserve

In the New York Times today, Luigi Zingales floated out what most probably consider a terrible idea for financing college education: private investors buying out equity stakes in students’ future income. Investors could finance students’ education with equity rather than debt. In exchange for their capital, the investors would receive a fraction of a student’s… Continue reading Equity financing for college education

Our system of college financing is a mess. Within the present system, it is hard to put downward cost pressure on universities, which has resulted in a cost explosion. Acquiring a college degree — although usually a lucrative move — requires some risk, and that risk is not properly spread out. The problems could go… Continue reading How effective is student aid?

College students in Quebec have been protesting for months now about a proposal to gradually increase tuition from $2,168 to $3,793 by 2017. That is, the province is reducing its very substantial university subsidies, and replacing that reduction with higher tuition. The students are not happy, to say the least. Groups of people wanting government… Continue reading The confused Quebec student protests

Most known about the large wage premium that comes from college degrees for those who capture jobs that require such degrees. But what about those who do not capture those jobs, and wind up in jobs that do not require college degrees? Believe it or not, those graduates also wind up making quite a bit… Continue reading College wage premium exists even for low-skill jobs