Date of Defense
12-8-2016
Date of Graduation
11-2016
Department
Finance and Commercial Law
First Advisor
James Bosco
Second Advisor
Wenling Lu
Abstract
Student loan debt is an issue facing the United States of America today. More and more people are enrolling themselves into college, hoping that a college degree would increase their chances of employment and improve their standard of living. However, the rise in demand for tertiary education has an effect on the amount of student loan debt accumulated in America. A hike in college tuition fees has caused a rise in default rate among student borrowers. More borrowers are entering repayment plans because they are not able to make their monthly loan payments. This phenomenon has altered borrowers’ decision on homeownership, and their efforts in wealth accumulation and retirement savings (Elliott & Lewis, 2015). Students’ financial standing and credit scores are negatively affected when their student loans go into default. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how student debt affects student borrowers and the U.S. economy as consumer behavior changes. The U.S. government should subsidize higher education and decrease the interest rate on student loans to reduce the severity of the problem.
Recommended Citation
Voon, Jensine, "An Analysis on the Growth of Student Loans and its Implications on the U.S. Economy" (2016). Honors Theses. 2780.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/2780
Access Setting
Honors Thesis-Open Access