The social security student benefit program and family decisions

In contrast to the debate that accompanies most social programs, debate over the Social Security Student Benefit Program (which was terminated in May of 1982) focused on its costs and almost totally ignored the possible effects of the program. Virtually nothing is known about how the program influenced potential recipients' decisions to attend college, the quality of the education they received. the amount that recipients' families contributed to the student's education, or recipients' in-school and summer employment. We shed insights into some of these effects, using data from the Social Security Administration's 1973 Survey of Student Beneficiaries.