The cost of complexity in federal student aid: lessons from optimal tax theory and behavioral economics.: An article from: National Tax Journal

This digital document is an article from National Tax Journal, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2006. The length of the article is 13295 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: The federal system for distributing student financial aid rivals the tax code in its complexity. Both have been a source of frustration and a focus of reform efforts for decades, yet the complexity of the student aid system has received comparatively little attention from economists. We describe the complexity of the aid system, and apply lessons from optimal tax theory and behavioral economics to show that complexity is a serious obstacle to both efficiency and equity in the distribution of student aid. We show that complexity disproportionately burdens those with the least ability to pay and undermines redistributive goals. We use detailed data from federal student aid applications to show that a radically simplified aid process can reproduce the current distribution of aid using a fraction of the information now collected.

Citation Details
Title: The cost of complexity in federal student aid: lessons from optimal tax theory and behavioral economics.
Author: Susan M. Dynarski
Publication:National Tax Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 59 Issue: 2 Page: 319(38)

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