The Return of Income-Contingency
The idea of income-contingent repayment (ICR) of student loans has been with us for a few decades now. In 1945, Milton Friedman advocated something like an ICR loan as a way of reducing the risk associated with educational investment. In 1971, nobel-prize winner, James Tobin, developed an ICR for use at Yale University. The first national-level ICR was in Australia, which introduced its Higher Education Contribution Scheme in 1988; the idea quickly spread to New Zealand, the UK, and Sweden.