The recent U.S. election is likely to have significant impacts on immigration policy and practices. Based on experience with the previous Trump administration and standing efforts among Republicans in Congress, these changes may impact Cornell students, staff, and faculty. Join Cornell’s Migrations Program in a conversation about the current state of immigration policy. This is a virtual-only meeting open to Cornell faculty, staff, and students. Registration is required. Panelists Shannon Gleeson, School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Brooks School of Public PolicyLaura Taylor, Director of International ServicesStephen Yale-Loehr, Cornell Law SchoolModerator Wendy Wolford, Vice Provost for International Affairs and Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life SciencesHost and Sponsors The Migrations Program, part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, builds upon the work of Migrations: A Global Grand Challenge to inform real-world policies and outcomes for populations that migrate.

Meredith Welch Financial Consequences of Student Loan Delinquency, Default, and Servicer Quality Abstract: Student loans are now the third largest form of household debt, and nearly 6 million federal student loan borrowers are in default. Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, and the federal government has unique levers for collecting on defaulted debt, leading to potentially severe financial consequences for borrowers. Using consumer credit panel data, I examine the credit market consequences of student loan delinquency and default and the role that student loan servicers play in contributing to borrower outcomes. I exploit random assignment of student loan borrowers to student loan servicers to study the direct effect of servicers on borrowers’ credit outcomes and to isolate variation in the likelihood of default that is not correlated with borrower characteristics. I find that being assigned to a higher-default servicer increases a borrower’s likelihood of default by approximately 6%. However, there is a precisely estimated null effect of servicer assignment on measures of borrowers’ likelihood of financial distress, credit access, and zip-code characteristics. These findings suggest that averting a servicer-induced default does not yield considerable benefits for marginal borrowers’ credit outcomes, but that servicers are meaningful drivers of student loan repayment outcomes.

Elliott Ash Abstract: