Visiting Professor at the CES – Courtney Coile, Jr. Professor of Economics at Wellesley College, NBER

The CES is pleased to welcome Courtney Coile, Professor of Economics at Wellesley College, USA, until 30 March. Courtney Coile is co-director of the NBER‘s Center for Retirement and Disability Research. She is also a member of the Committee on Population at the American Academy of Sciences.

A seminar will be held on Wednesday 29 March at 12:30 PM in room 114.

Title: “How Post-Secondary Education Affects Earnings, Disability, and Longevity: evidence from the Social Security Student Benefit Program”

Abstract:
We estimate the causal effect of post-secondary education on long-term outcomes using variation in educational attainment arising from changes in the Social Security Student Benefit Program (SBP). This program provided substantial cash benefits through age 22 to children of deceased, disabled, or retired Social Security beneficiaries pursuing secondary or post-secondary education, serving 750,000 students at its peak. Starting in 1982, benefits for post-secondary students were phased out and eliminated. Using administrative data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and linked American Community Survey (ACS)-SSA data, we find that cohorts with reduced access to student benefits had lower educational attainment and lower mid-life earnings. Our ongoing work examines disability benefit receipt and mortality effects and evaluates the SBP using the Marginal Value of Public Funds (MVPF) approach.