Publication Date
2024
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Wilcox, Virginia
Degree Name
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Legacy Department
Department of Economics
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the impact of financial constraints due to debt on three aspects of young American adults' lives after graduation. The first essay examines the impact of student loan debt on the mental health of US young adults using restricted-access and publicly available data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). Prior studies found that debt negatively affects mental health. However, few papers focused on educational debt. Unlike other debt, student loan debt is special because it funds human capital investment, and borrowers expect to receive a significant return on the investment. Using a two-stage estimation model, I find that educational debt, like every other debt, negatively affects US young adults’ mental health. An increase in education debt by $10,000 increases the probability of being depressed by 7.37%. The effect of debt on mental health is more prominent during the first years of loan repayment. Income does not alleviate the effect of student loan debt on mental health.
The second essay explores the impact of debt on donations and volunteering using the NLSY97 publicly available data. This aspect has not been explored in the existing literature. Using an ordered logistic model, I find that student loan debt does not have a significant effect on time and money donations. Other types of debt such as credit cards and vehicle debt significantly affect monetary donations but have no significant impact on volunteering. Besides debt, I find gender and racial differences in monetary donations. Women are more likely to donate compared to men, while Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to make monetary donations compared to their White and Mixed-race counterparts. My results suggest that volunteering is considered by young adults as an investment rather than a consumption good.
The third essay examines whether debt causes young American adults to have several jobs using the NLSY97 publicly available data. My research contributes to the literature by being the first to evaluate the impact of student loan debt and other types of debt such as credit cards, vehicles, and mortgages, on young American adults’ rates of multiple jobholding. Using a Poisson regression, I find that debt has a positive impact on young American adults’ rate of multiple jobholding. Specifically, a one standard deviation increase in student loan debt and other types of debt increases the rate of multiple jobholding by 2.35% and 2.55%, respectively. My result suggests that financially constrained young adults are more likely to have several jobs compared to their counterparts who are not financially constrained. Besides debt, I find a gender and racial difference in multiple jobholding. Women are less likely to have several jobs compared to men, while Blacks or Hispanics are less likely to moonlight compared to their White and Mixed-race counterparts. The results also show that work disabilities do not have a significant impact on young adults' multiple jobholding.
Recommended Citation
Sanou, Sylvie, "Three Essays on the Impact of Debt on Young American Adults’ Lives after Graduation" (2024). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7983.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7983
Extent
164 pages
Language
en
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
