Does Financial Aid Improve Student Success? Evidence from Portugal

The article “The impact of need-based aid on higher education achievement: Evidence from Portugal” by Sophie Guthmuller and Elena Claudia Meroni analyses the impact of receiving need-based aid, which includes a fee waiver and additional cash support, on students’ university matriculation and academic performance among aid applicants accepted to university in Portugal. The paper uses a regression discontinuity approach. We are able to measure the effect, at the intensive margin, on various short- and longer-term outcomes, thanks to precise administrative data. We find that the fee waiver has a small positive effect on matriculation, but no effect on performance and persistence measured as the likelihood of obtaining the enrolled credits, the credits needed for the aid renewal, graduating, and matriculating into second and third years. In a context of low tuition fees and weak merit requirements, these findings suggest that financial aid alone may not be sufficient to improve student outcomes.