Jeff Denning

Jeff Denning is the economist in Can the Trump administration make college cheaper? whose Texas study provides the episode’s strongest evidence for the Bennett Hypothesis. The source says Denning and colleagues studied the 2006 creation of [[GradPLUSLoans|Grad PLUS loans]] and found that graduate-school prices rose after students could borrow more.

The episode presents his estimate as causal in that setting: about 64 cents of higher price for every additional loan dollar. That makes Denning central to the policy case for Federal Student Loan Caps, while still leaving open whether the same effect appears across fields, states, and institutions.

Connections

• Bennett Hypothesis - theory his study supports in the Texas graduate-program setting.
• Grad PLUS Loans and Graduate School Debt - loan expansion and debt context studied in the source.
• Robert Kelchen - contrasting researcher whose broader work found less support for a simple effect.
• Federal Student Loan Caps - policy implication debated in the episode.