Daniel Collier, Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education, University of Memphis and Dan Fitzpatrick, Research and Assessment Specialist, University of Michigan, have written Jubilee and Jubilation: An Examination of the Relationship between Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Measures of Well-Being. Here is the abstract:
A team of researchers at the University of Memphis and the University of Michigan released the results of a groundbreaking analysis revealing the massive personal benefits that student loan borrowers enjoy as they approach and, in particular, as they achieve debt cancellation through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Using a novel survey of hundreds of student loan borrowers across the country, this research provides a first-of-its-kind look at how nearing and arriving at PSLF has positive spillover effects across nearly every area of borrowers’ lives, including improving a wide range of financial, psychological, and behavioral measures. PSLF is a critical pathway available to federal student loan borrowers to pursue debt relief. However, little is known about borrowers who pursue PSLF, or about how nearing and arriving at cancellation through the program relates to borrowers’ financial behaviors and measures of subjective well-being.