Diego A. Briones

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at the University of Virginia. I am an applied microeconomist with research interests in labor economics, public economics, economics of education, and household finance. My current research largely focuses on the economic consequences of government education financing programs, with a particular emphasis on student debt and consumer credit markets.

I am on the 2025-26 job market

My dissertation work is supported in part by the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, the University of California Student Loan Law Initiative, and the Bankard Fund for Political Economy.

Email: dab5xq@virginia.edu. My Curriculum Vitae is available here: CV

Research

Job Market Paper

Credit Scars: Credit Reporting Relief for Defaulted Student Loan Borrowers: Abstract
Over one in five student loan borrowers eventually defaults, leaving a persistent black mark on their credit reports. These borrowers disproportionately attended low-return institutions and come from disadvantaged backgrounds, raising concerns that credit record penalties may be restricting economic mobility. I estimate the causal effect of removing student loan default records from credit reports by leveraging their automatic removal under the seven-year Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) threshold, which I establish as the primary mechanism for student loan default record clearance. Using a nationally representative panel of quarterly administrative credit bureau records and a stacked difference-in-differences design, I find that record removal boosts credit scores by 15 points and spurs significant new borrowing across mortgage, auto, and credit card markets, primarily on the extensive margin. These results indicate that default records continued to function as barriers to credit long after the initial financial distress. The value that individuals place on increased access to credit more than seven years after the initial default event suggests significant private and social returns to programs that successfully rehabilitate defaults or to programs intended to prevent default.

Working Papers

Voting on a Promise: Did the Proposed Student Loan Forgiveness Impact Electoral Outcomes?: with Arnav Dharmagadda and Jaden Shawyer; October 2025 (Under Review); Abstract
Student loan forgiveness has featured prominently in the political debate around policy responses to address rising debt burdens, yet there is strikingly little evidence of its electoral implications. We study the consequences of the 2022 broad-based debt relief program implemented by the Biden administration less than a month before the November midterm elections. Using geographic information on over 25 million applications for cancellation benefits, we document the program’s influence on congressional races. Counties where a higher share of the voting-age population submitted applications had higher vote shares for Democratic party candidates. Program exposure does not significantly predict Democratic voting in prior elections, and individual-level survey data provide corroborating evidence for our county-level estimates. Our results provide evidence for the role of wealth-targeting policies in shaping voter behavior even when the benefits are not realized.
Labor, Loans, and Leisure: The Impact of the Student Loan Payment Pause: with Sarah Turner; March 2025, Revise and resubmit at the Review of Economics and Statistics; NBER working paper #33553; Abstract
Beginning in March 2020 and ultimately continuing to September 2023, most student loan borrowers had their required payments on federal student loans paused. For student loan borrowers with limited access to credit, the payment pause provided additional cash-on-hand that may have allowed them to reduce their work hours. Using survey data capturing individual finances, monthly work characteristics and educational attainment, we find that suspended student debt payments reduced average weekly hours worked by 1.34 (-4%) over a 10-month period with declines concentrated among workers who had not completed a college degree. For borrowers who had completed a college degree or graduate degree, there is no evidence that the payment pause changed employment or hours worked. These findings are consistent with consumer finance data showing that borrower households without a college degree are approximately twice as likely to report liquidity constraints relative to more educated households with federal student debt.

Publications

Waivers for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program: Who Would Benefit from Take-up?: 2024 (with Nathaniel Ruby and Sarah Turner); Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 43, 1004–1033.; Online appendix | NBER working paper #30208 | Pre-publication version; Abstract
For workers employed in the public and nonprofit sectors, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program offers the potential for full forgiveness of federal student loans for those with 10 years of full-time work experience. A year-long waiver issued by the Department of Education in 2021 to address administrative problems in program access provided a new path to PSLF relief for many borrowers. We explore the overall impact and distributional implications of potential full participation in loan forgiveness enabled by the PSLF waiver program using the 2018 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Our estimates identify more than $100 billion in loan forgiveness available to as many as 3.45 million borrowers through the PSLF waiver program. Potential beneficiaries of this initiative are disproportionately employed in occupations like teaching and health care. Full take-up of the PSLF waiver would lead to a narrowing of the racial gap in student debt burden. However, the distributional impact of the PSLF waiver depends critically on the take-up rate and there is some evidence that those borrowers with relatively high income or advanced degrees have been most likely to access benefits.

Work in Progress

A Fresh Start for Borrowers? Impacts of Loan Rehabilitation for Defaulted Federal Student Borrowers

The Long Term Impacts of English Learner Programs: Evidence from Bilingual Education in Texas: University of Houston Education Research Center Approved Project No. UH 037

Other Publications

Revitalizing PSLF: What’s Next After the Waiver: December 2023; Third Way ACADEMIX Upshot Policy Brief
Student Loan Payment Pause Benefits High-Income Households the Most: With forgiveness uncertain, struggling borrowers are unprotected from risk: January 2023 (with Eileen Powell and Sarah Turner); Education Next, 23(3), 40-47.
EdPolicyWorks working paper #77
Performance Measures and Postsecondary Investments for Adult Students: Available “YardSticks” and the Challenges of Institutional Comparisons: January 2022 (with Sarah Turner)
In Student Outcomes and Earnings in Higher Education Policy, edited by Jason D. Delisle

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