Despite the rapid increase in the returns to higher education witnessed in
the labor market over the past few decades, there has also been a marked
increase in the share of individuals who dropout of college or university. To
boost student persistence in higher education, several Canadian provincial governments introduced a set of reforms that were designed as subsidies for college
graduation. In addition, these policies were designed to discourage internal migration following graduation. Using data from both administrative tax records
as well as longitudinal surveys, I analyze the effectiveness of these policies. The
main findings are that the programs had no effect on internal migration, but
significantly reduced college dropout rates
