Student loans: A look at the evidence
Past Event
Introduction

Introduction

Loan burdens and defaults: Failure of the repayment system or failures in accountability?

Should we raise or lower the ceilings on amounts students and parents can borrow?

How big a macro-economic problem is the run up in student debt?
Americans have borrowed heavily to go to college. Student debt now amounts to $1.5 trillion, more than Americans owe on their credit cards. More than 10 percent of that debt is 90 days delinquent or in default. And student loans have become a potent political issue. The Trump administration has rolled back some of the limits and rules imposed by the Obama administration, and several Democratic presidential candidates are proposing to forgive some or all student loans, or to make the first two years of college (and sometimes more) free of tuition.
To inject rigorous research and evidence into this heated debate, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy at Brookings invited half a dozen economists with expertise in this area to discuss some of the big questions and controversies.
Agenda
Introduction
Adam Looney
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Executive Director, Marriner S. Eccles Institute, University of Utah
Session Materials
Loan burdens and defaults: Failure of the repayment system or failures in accountability?
Adam Looney
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Executive Director, Marriner S. Eccles Institute, University of Utah
Dubravka Ritter
Senior Research Fellow - Consumer Finance Institute, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Louise Sheiner
The Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Policy Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Session Materials
Should we raise or lower the ceilings on amounts students and parents can borrow?
Matthew Chingos
Vice President, Education Data and Policy - Urban Institute
Lesley J. Turner
Associate Professor of Economics - Vanderbilt University
Jordan Matsudaira
Associate Professor of Economics and Education Policy - Teachers College, Columbia University
Session Materials
How big a macro-economic problem is the run up in student debt?
Sandy Baum
Nonresident Fellow, Center on Education Data and Policy - Urban Institute
Laura J. Feiveson
Chief, Household and Business Spending Section, Division of Research and Statistics - Federal Reserve Board
David Wessel
Director - The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy
Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Session Materials
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