Code for: The Impact of Income-Driven Repayment on Student Borrower Outcomes

In the U.S., most student loans follow a fixed payment schedule that falls on borrowers early in their careers. This structure provides no insurance against earnings risk and may increase student loan defaults. Income-driven repayment (IDR) plans are designed to help distressed student borrowers by lowering their monthly payments to a share of income. Using random variation from an automatic dialing system, I find that IDR reduces delinquencies by 22 percentage points and decreases outstanding balances by $370 within eight months of take-up. I find suggestive long-run impacts on borrower credit scores, mortgage-holding rates, and other measures of financial health.