"DO STUDENTS PROFIT FROM FOR-PROFIT EDUCATION? ESTIMATING THE RETURNS TO POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION WITH TAX DATA" BY NICHOLAS TURNER

This paper addresses important issues concerning individual college attendance decisions and federal government support for higher education. The share of college students attending for-profit institutions is only 9%. Yet, because the costs of attendance are between 2.4 to 3.4 times higher than for those attending public colleges, 24% of Pell Grants and 36% of post 9/11 G.I. Bill benefits have gone to supporting enrollment at for-profit colleges. Employing individual-year merged data from the Internal Revenue Service and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Nicholas Turner compares earnings before and after enrollment at nonprofit versus for-profit institutions for tax filers with at least three years of pre-enrollment earnings. The paper raises an important cautionary note about the misallocation of individual and federal government spending on higher education.