Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
A serious difficulty in determining the importance of credit constraints in education arises because standard data sources do not provide a direct way of identifying which students are credit constrained. This paper differentiates itself from previous work by taking a direct approach, made possible by unique longitudinal data from the Berea Panel Study. The results from our study of Berea College students suggest that, while credit constraints likely play an important role in the drop-out decisions of some students, the large majority of attrition of students from low-income families should be primarily attributed to reasons other than credit constraints. (JEL I21, I22)