From the Battlefield to the Classroom: The Impact of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
Andrew Barr
About the research
Award
NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship
Award Year
2013
Institution
University of Virginia
Primary Discipline
Economics
The Post-9/11 GI Bill brought about the largest expansion in veteran education benefits since World War II. While nearly a million Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans have used these benefits to invest in education, there is little evidence demonstrating how the availability of these benefits has changed educational outcomes. I create the first large panel dataset to consist of detailed year-by-year information on veterans and their educational choices by linking administrative military and education data. Using multiple empirical techniques and associated sources of variation, I am able to measure how the changing benefit generosity of the GI Bill affected collegiate outcomes. Measures of ability (AFQT) and prior experience contained in my data allow me to provide more general evidence as to the types of individuals affected by financial aid as well as the extent to which education benefits affect older adult educational attainment.
About Andrew Barr
N/A