Paulsen Richard J
Department of Economics and Finance, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Sutliff Hall Suite 220, Room 228, 400 E. 2nd Street, Bloomsburg, PA 17815 USA.
J Cult Econ (Dordr). 2023 Mar 16:1-21. doi: 10.1007/s10824-023-09474-x.
This study looks to test the impact of student loan debt on the career choices of college graduates with majors in the arts in the USA. As earnings are on average lower and more variable for arts graduates when compared to graduates of many other fields, I hypothesize that student loan debt will decrease the likelihood arts graduates will work in jobs related to their major fields of study. National Survey of College Graduates data is used to test this hypothesis. I find that for arts graduates, owing on student debt decreases the likelihood of working in jobs closely related to their major fields by over 25% and decreases the likelihood they work as artists by over 30%. For all college graduates, the negative impact of student debt on working in closely related jobs to their major fields is only 3%. Student debt may have potential distributional impacts on who works as artists, as Black and Hispanic graduates and those whose parents did not attend college are more likely to have student debt and less likely to be working in jobs closely related to their major field of study. Policies that help to alleviate the debt burden on arts graduates, like debt relief, could help to mitigate these negative distributional impacts.
本研究旨在测试美国艺术专业大学毕业生的学生贷款债务对其职业选择的影响。与许多其他领域的毕业生相比，艺术专业毕业生的平均收入较低且更不稳定，因此我假设学生贷款债务会降低艺术专业毕业生从事与其专业领域相关工作的可能性。本研究使用了全国大学毕业生调查数据来检验这一假设。我发现，对于艺术专业毕业生来说，背负学生债务会使其从事与其专业领域紧密相关工作的可能性降低超过25%，从事艺术家工作的可能性降低超过30%。对于所有大学毕业生而言，学生债务对其从事与其专业领域紧密相关工作的负面影响仅为3%。学生债务可能会对从事艺术家工作的人群产生潜在的分布影响，因为黑人、西班牙裔毕业生以及父母未上过大学的毕业生更有可能背负学生债务，且从事与其专业领域紧密相关工作的可能性更低。有助于减轻艺术专业毕业生债务负担的政策，如债务减免，可能有助于缓解这些负面的分布影响。
