%0 Report %A Sjoquist, David L. %A Winters, John V. %T The Effects of State Merit Aid Programs on Attendance at Elite Colleges %D 2015 %8 2015 Sep %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) %C Bonn %7 IZA Discussion Paper %N 9371 %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp9371 %X State merit aid programs have been found to reduce the likelihood that students attend college out-of-state. Using the U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges and universities to measure college quality and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data to measure enrollment, we explore how this reduction in out-of-state enrollment differs by the academic quality of the institution. Our results suggest that state merit aid programs do not reduce the likelihood that a student attends a top ranked school, but that these programs do reduce the likelihood of enrolling at less prestigious out-of-state schools, with generally larger effects the lower the ranking of the schools. %K elite college %K college quality %K college choice %K merit aid