Documents Fan, Wen 3 results

"Credit affects individuals' perceptions and experiences of inequality. Having access to credit enables those in lower- and middle-income groups to consume an array of products and services that they otherwise would not be able to afford, thereby taking the edge off discontent. Citizens with higher incomes who tend to be less supportive of redistribution in the first place may be further convinced that inequality is not a major issue and redistribution need not be a policy goal. All in all, credit may help smooth out class and status differences. This article looks at the impact of credit on citizens' support for redistributive policies. Controlling for a set of national and individual level variables, the findings show a negative association between credit use and public support for redistribution."

"College graduates tend to earn more than non-graduates but it is difficult to ascertain how much of this empirical association between wages and college degree is due to the causal effect of a college degree and how much is due to unobserved factors that influence both wages and education (e.g. ability). In this paper, I use the 1970 British Cohort Study to examine the college premium for people who have a similar ability level by using a restricted sample of people who are all college eligible but some never attend. Compared with using the full sample, restricting the sample to college-eligible reduces the return to college significantly using both regression and propensity score matching estimates. The finding suggests the importance of comparing individuals of similar ability levels when estimating the return to college."