Motivated to Succeed? Attitudes to Education Among Native and Immigrant Pupils in England

23 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2018 Last revised: 18 Nov 2021

See all articles by Simon M. Burgess

Simon M. Burgess

University of Bristol - Department of Economics; University of Bristol - Leverhulme Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Abstract

We study attitudes to education among English adolescents. Using PISA data, we show there is considerable variation in these attitudes depending on background: immigrant students have substantially and significantly more positive attitudes to school than native children, a difference that amounts to around 0.2 standard deviations. There is no difference between first- and second-generation immigrants, and the attitude gap does not appear to depend on particular schools' policies. We also show that students in London have more positive attitudes to education on average, but this is entirely accounted for by the distribution of children of immigrants in that city.

Keywords: education, human capital, motivation, immigrants

JEL Classification: I21, I24

Suggested Citation

Burgess, Simon and Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel, Motivated to Succeed? Attitudes to Education Among Native and Immigrant Pupils in England. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11678, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3217496 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3217496

Simon Burgess (Contact Author)

University of Bristol - Department of Economics ( email )

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University of Bristol - Leverhulme Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO)

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United Kingdom

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
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IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ( email )

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Sweden

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

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