Are Millennials with Student Loans Upwardly Mobile?

Abstract

Students have been amassing ever-growing levels of debt to attend college. The situation has raised concerns about whether the debt is high enough that the benefits of borrowing—in terms of students' future socioeconomic outcomes—are compromised. This Commentary investigates relationships between student debt, mobility, and upward social mobility. The findings suggest that student debts have not become so burdensome that they undo the advantages of higher skills. However, the advantages enjoyed by heavily indebted millennial students relative to nonborrowers have declined substantially from the advantages enjoyed by the heaviest borrowers in Generation X.