Student Loan Repayment Plan Choice Pilot Survey

Last registered on January 21, 2020

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Student Loan Repayment Plan Choice Pilot Survey

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005302

Initial registration date

January 20, 2020

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

January 21, 2020, 1:54 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Michigan State University

Primary Investigator

Name

Joshua Brownstein

Affiliation

Michigan State University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Scott Imberman

PI Affiliation

Dissertation Advisor

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2020-01-13

End date

2020-02-24

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

student loan, student loan repayment, college

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the effect that the design of income based repayment plans have on student loan repayment plan choice. To do this I field a survey to undergraduate students. In the survey students are then asked to choose between a 10 year repayment plan and an income based repayment plan. The specific design of the income based repayment plan is randomized for each respondent. After the respondents choose a plan they are then asked for information that might affect their choice including information on their: expectations, financial aid, demographics, risk aversion, and educational information.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Brownstein, Joshua and Scott Imberman. 2020. "Student Loan Repayment Plan Choice Pilot Survey." AEA RCT Registry. January 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5302-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2020-01-13

Intervention End Date

2020-01-24

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The proportion of respondents who choose the income based repayment plan over the 10 year repayment plan.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Respondents are ask to choose between an 10 year repayment plan and an income based repayment plan. The income based plan sets payments as a percentage of yearly income above an amount of exempt income. It also specifies that loans will be forgiven after a certain number of years. The following aspects of the questions are randomized for each respondent: the order in which the repayment plans are shown, the amount of income that is exempt from payment calculations in the income based plan, the percentage of non-exempt income that determines payment in the income based plan, and the number of years until loan forgiveness in the income based plan. Each aspect has 2 different variations for a total of 16 different treatments.

Experimental Design Details

The amount of exempt income for the income based place is randomized between $20,000 and $30,000.
The percentage of non-exempt income that determines payment for the income based place is randomized between 5% and 10%.
The number of years until loan forgiveness in the income based repayment plan is randomized between 15 years and 20 years

Randomization Method

Randomization is done using Qualtrics' built-in randomizer which is found under survey flow. The box to evenly present elements is checked.

Randomization Unit

Randomization is done at the level of the individual survey respondent.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

There are no clusters in this survey.

Sample size: planned number of observations

The plan is have 200 survey respondents. The survey will close after 200 responses have been recorded. However, it may the case that I do not have the desired number of responses for as of this writing the survey only has 126 responses.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

With 200 respondents and 16 treatments (including randomizing the order of the repayment) each treatment will have either 12 or 13 respondents. Because the survey is primarily focused on how the parameters of the income based repayment plan effects plan choice, each of the 8 combinations of parameters for the income based plans should be seen by 25 respondents.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB