The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the determinants of taking out government-funded student loans for university study in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an ordered probit model to quantify the influence of the various factors which affect students’ decisions on fundin...

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Main Authors: Birch, E., Miller, Paul
Format: Journal Article
Published: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20246
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author Birch, E.
Miller, Paul
author_facet Birch, E.
Miller, Paul
author_sort Birch, E.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the determinants of taking out government-funded student loans for university study in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an ordered probit model to quantify the influence of the various factors which affect students’ decisions on funding their tertiary study using student loans or through other means. Findings – The study finds that the probability of taking out student loans for the full cost of university is largely influenced by students’ socioeconomic status. Other major influences on this decision include students’ demographic and university enrolment characteristics. Research limitations/implications – A limitation of the work is that only a neighbourhood (rather than an individual-level) measure of socioeconomic status was available, and future research should seek to address this. Practical implications – The research shows that the parameters of loan schemes do not seem to be able to over-ride the influence that family background has on loan taking behaviour. That is, poor students use loans regardless of the parameters of the loans scheme in order to overcome short-term credit constraints. In other words, these student loan schemes channel funds to those without other means of funding their higher education. Originality/value – By showing the impact that income contingent provisions have on loan taking behaviour, the paper informs policy makers of potential impacts from modifying loans schemes to reflect this characteristic.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-202462017-09-13T16:04:40Z The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour Birch, E. Miller, Paul Loans Australia Universities Students Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the determinants of taking out government-funded student loans for university study in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an ordered probit model to quantify the influence of the various factors which affect students’ decisions on funding their tertiary study using student loans or through other means. Findings – The study finds that the probability of taking out student loans for the full cost of university is largely influenced by students’ socioeconomic status. Other major influences on this decision include students’ demographic and university enrolment characteristics. Research limitations/implications – A limitation of the work is that only a neighbourhood (rather than an individual-level) measure of socioeconomic status was available, and future research should seek to address this. Practical implications – The research shows that the parameters of loan schemes do not seem to be able to over-ride the influence that family background has on loan taking behaviour. That is, poor students use loans regardless of the parameters of the loans scheme in order to overcome short-term credit constraints. In other words, these student loan schemes channel funds to those without other means of funding their higher education. Originality/value – By showing the impact that income contingent provisions have on loan taking behaviour, the paper informs policy makers of potential impacts from modifying loans schemes to reflect this characteristic. 2008 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20246 10.1108/01443580810844406 Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. fulltext
spellingShingle Loans
Australia
Universities
Students
Birch, E.
Miller, Paul
The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour
title The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour
title_full The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour
title_fullStr The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour
title_full_unstemmed The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour
title_short The impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour
title_sort impact of income contingent provisions on students' loan taking behaviour
topic Loans
Australia
Universities
Students
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20246