Government programs impose eligibility requirements to balance the goals of improving welfare while minimizing waste. We study the impact of eligibility monitoring in the context of Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submissions, where students may be subject to “verification” requirements that require them to confirm the accuracy of the data. Using a matching on observables design we do not find that students flagged for verification are less likely to enroll in college, which contrasts prior research. Verification reduces grant aid received but average changes are small, raising questions about the benefits of this administrative process.

政府计划提出了资格要求，以平衡改善福利和尽量减少浪费的目标。我们研究了联邦学生援助联邦申请 (FAFSA) 提交中资格监控的影响，其中学生可能需要遵守“验证”要求，要求他们确认数据的准确性。使用可观察设计的匹配，我们没有发现被标记为验证的学生不太可能进入大学，这与之前的研究形成鲜明对比。核查减少了收到的赠款援助，但平均变化很小，引发了人们对这一管理流程的好处的质疑。