This paper uses cutbacks to a post-secondary funding program for Indigenous peoples in Canada to understand how changes in the costs of higher education affect the educational attainment and labour market outcomes of Indigenous groups. I exploit exogenous variation in exposure to student aid across cohorts and ethnicities to show that increasing the costs of post-secondary education not only affects post-secondary attainment but can also lead to a sizable decrease in high school graduation rates. After reductions in targeted student aid in the late 1980s, high school graduation rates declined by five percentage points on Indian reserves. I suggest that this finding is consistent with a model of human capital acquisition in which the return to a high school degree is low. In this framework, some students complete high school in order to attend a post-secondary institution. When post-secondary education is no longer affordable, some students may no longer find it worthwhile to complete high school. In the long-run, the program cutbacks had lasting adverse effects on labour supply.

本文利用加拿大原住民高等教育资助计划的削减来了解高等教育成本的变化如何影响原住民群体的教育程度和劳动力市场结果。我利用不同群体和种族之间获得学生援助的外生差异来表明，高等教育成本的增加不仅会影响高等教育的成就，还会导致高中毕业率大幅下降。20 世纪 80 年代末减少针对学生的援助后，印度储备国的高中毕业率下降了 5 个百分点。我认为这一发现与高中学历回报较低的人力资本获取模型是一致的。在这个框架下，一些学生完成高中学业是为了进入高等教育机构。当高等教育不再负担得起时，一些学生可能不再觉得值得完成高中学业。从长远来看，计划削减对劳动力供应产生了持久的不利影响。