Financial Consequences of Student Loan Delinquency, Default, and Servicer Quality (Job Market Paper) 

• Student loan debt is now the second largest form of household debt after mortgages. The Department of Education (ED) estimates that around a million loans go into default every year, which comes with severe financial consequences for borrowers. Using unique data from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel (UC-CCP), this paper examines the financial consequences of student loan delinquency and default and the role that student loan servicers play in contributing to borrower outcomes. I study the relationship between defaulting on student loans and borrowers’ non-student-loan credit outcomes. I answer this question using two approaches: (1) an examiner tendency design that exploits the random assignment of student loan borrowers to student loan servicers and (2) an event study design to provide new evidence on borrowers' trajectories around the timing of delinquency and default.