The effects of state performance funding policies on student loan debt.

Performance-based funding (PBF) policies are an increasingly common way for states to tie funding for public colleges and universities to student outcomes. Yet amid growing concerns about student debt, the potential exists for PBF to affect student debt and ability to repay loans in both intended and unintended ways. In this paper, we use the first comprehensive dataset of PBF policies to examine the effects of PBF on student debt. We found no effects of PBF on student debt in the two-year sector and some evidence of increased debt among university students from more affluent families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]