While President-elect Biden’s choice to chair her Council of Economic Advisers, Cecilia Rouse, did not call for the cancellation of student debt, she expressed her awareness of the impact of debt on borrowers in a document research from 2007.

Rouse, in a paper co-authored with Jesse Rothstein, now professor of public policy and economics at the University of California at Berkeley, found that holding student debt made students more likely to choose high-paying careers and avoid the less well paid like teaching.

In the study, Rothstein and Rouse, who is now dean of Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, looked at students at an anonymous university that had stopped giving loans and was not giving to students financial aid only in the form of scholarships.

They found that for every $ 10,000 in debt, the chances of a college student taking a job in a nonprofit, government, or education by 5-6%.

“Overall, it seems college debt affects employment decisions after graduation: students with the most debt are less likely to take jobs in low-paying industries and take jobs better paid more generally, ”the study found.

Rouse “was among the first (perhaps the first?) Economists to empirically demonstrate that student debt has ripple effects on borrower decision-making,” said Mike Pierce, director of policy and legal counsel at Student Borrower Protection Center, and former head of higher education and consumer protection at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the Obama administration. The paper was a “cornerstone of the literature on the domino effects of student debt, and Biden’s appointment as CEA chair is a big sign for student loan borrowers.” His academic work was MUCH ahead of his time, ”he said in an email.

Biden’s transition on Monday announced plans to appoint Rouse and others to key economic positions in the administration, ahead of an official press conference today.

The idea of ​​canceling student debt remains controversial, however. In a job paper Published on Sunday, researchers at the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago argued that widespread debt cancellation would primarily help high-income borrowers, as those with income-oriented repayment plans will see their balances canceled anyway after about 25 years, according to the plans. Extending income-focused repayment plans to more people, they wrote, would be more likely to help low-income borrowers than blanket debt cancellation.

When this is taken into account, said researchers Sylvain Catherine and Constantine Yannelis, the highest-paying borrowers would receive $ 5,944 in rebate, while those with the lowest incomes would receive $ 1,070 in rebate.