Downloads
wp201613.pdf
PDF | 1.14 MB
We study students’ motives for educational attainment in a unique survey of 885 secondary school students in the UK. As expected, students who perceive the monetary returns to education to be higher are more likely to intend to continue in full-time education. However, the main driver is the perceived consumption value, which alone explains around half of the variation of the intention to pursue higher education. Moreover, the perceived consumption value can account for a substantial part of both the socio-economic gap and the gender gap in intentions to continue in full-time education.
Authors
Research Fellow Financial Conduct Authority
Jonathan is a Research Fellow at the IFS and a Technical Specialist in the Economics Department at the Financial Conduct Authority.
Chris Belfield
Research Associate University of Bonn
Teodora is a Research Associate and a Professor of Applied Microeconomics at the Department of Economics at the University of Bonn.
Christopher Rauh
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2016.1613
- Publisher
- IFS
Suggested citation
Belfield, C et al. (2016). Money or fun? Why students want to pursue further education. London: IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/money-or-fun-why-students-want-pursue-further-education (accessed: 19 March 2024).
More from IFS
Understand this issue
Scottish Budget 2024-25: IFS analysis
How important is the Bank of Mum and Dad?
15 December 2023
Social mobility and wealth
12 December 2023
Policy analysis
The IFS Scottish Budget Report – 2024–25
22 February 2024
Scottish Budget: Higher education spending
20 February 2024
Scottish Government boosts support for students’ living costs, but further cuts funding for universities to teach them
20 February 2024
Academic research
The menopause "penalty"
18 March 2024
A coefficient of variation for ordered categorical data: Analyzing relative health inequality and ageing in the UK and relative human resource inequality and gender in Canada
21 December 2023
Measuring wellbeing growth and convergence in multivariate ordered categorical worlds: Has there been any levelling up in the United Kingdom?
21 December 2023