Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of gender‐specific peer groups on students’ intentions and realisations to stay on into post‐compulsory education at the age of 16. This is an important area for research as one of the UK government’s aims is to achieve a 50% staying on rate in higher education at the age of 16. However, this might not be achievable because it is demand‐constrained: not all students want to stay on in education at 16. Peer groups are known to affect demand decision‐making and such affects are also known to be stronger for boys than for girls. Here we explicitly model the demand for post‐compulsory education as a function of peer groups. Our results suggest (1) boys’ intentions and realisations are influenced mainly by their male peers, and (2) girls’ intentions are influenced by their whole peer group while their female peer group influences their realisations. Policy targeted to increase participation rates should recognise these gender differences.
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