Student Loans from a Macro Perspective with Doug Webber

Breaking Student Debt Podcast

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Professor of Economics at Temple University, Dr. Doug Webber, Ph.D about student loan debt from a macro level. Doug is one of the nicest and brightest people I have had the pleasure of talking with. He has been published in FiveThirtyEight.com and has such an incredible perspective about higher education policy. Have you ever wondered where all of that tuition money goes to? Are colleges and universities just pocketing huge sums of money? How can we curb the amount of student loan debt from an institutional level? I ask Doug all of these questions and more in this episode. About Dr. Doug WebberDr. Doug Webber, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Temple University and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). His main areas of interest are labor economics and the economics of higher education. He provided his testimony to the Senate HELP Committee on risk-sharing and student loan policy in May of 2015. You can find out more about Doug through his website, doug-webber.com Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougwebberecon Show Notes:

• Doug's background and how he became interested in studying higher education policies
• The history behind why student loans were created in the first place in America
• Doug explains the difference between the "cost" of higher education and the "price" of higher education
• Where does your tuition money go?
• The role marketing plays into driving up the "price" of higher education
• Doug addresses why public universities are receiving less and less funding from the state level
• Doug speaks about the future of student loans and his thoughts on the benefits and downfalls of higher education