Working while studying? Student aid design and socioeconomic achievement disparities in higher education

We analyze the relation between student academic achievement and labor supply by exploiting institutional variation derived from a Swedish public financial aid reform which altered the relative cost of financing college education through taking up student loans and engaging in market work, respectively. Applying detailed administrative data we estimate relative changes in earnings and academic credits attributed to the intervention for students from different social backgrounds. Results show that the reform increased relative earnings and decreased relative study pace for students from a lower socioeconomic background. These effects appear to have been driven by students more financially constrained by the previous system.