In 2010, South Korea introduced a new student loan program that was income contingent (ICL). One of the main expected outcomes of the new loan program was to provide credit-constrained students the ability to focus on their college education rather than having to work while enrolled. To this end, this study investigates the effect of ICL on college attendance as well as two first year outcomes, including students’ dropout or stop-out and working behaviors while enrolled. Using data from the Youth Panel and a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, we analyze whether or not the introduction of this new loan program improved students’ educational outcomes. Our results indicate that ICL’s introduction increased ICL eligible students’ probability of enrolling college. On the other hand, we found insufficient evidence that ICL reduces students working part-time while enrolled in college. While the findings are contrary to the policy intensions, the current study suggests areas for future research to fully understand the impact of ICL on students and to improve the loan policy.

2010年，韩国推出了一项新的学生贷款计划，该计划是根据收入而定（ICL）。新贷款计划的主要预期成果之一是为受信贷限制的学生提供专注于大学教育的能力，而不必在入学时工作。为此，本研究调查了ICL对大学出勤率以及两个第一年结局的影响，包括学生入学时的辍学或辍学以及工作行为。利用青年小组的数据和差异估计策略，我们分析了这项新贷款计划的实施是否改善了学生的教育成果。我们的结果表明，ICL的引入增加了符合ICL资格的学生就读大学的可能性。另一方面，我们发现没有足够的证据表明ICL减少了在大学就读时的兼职工作。尽管这些发现与政策意图背道而驰，但当前的研究为未来的研究领域提供了充分了解ICL对学生的影响并改善贷款政策的领域。