A quantitative analysis of the demand for higher education

This article analyses the plans of a sample of 7425 secondary school children in Greece regarding their demand for further education. A set of family, personal, geographical and school characteristics are related by means of multivariate analysis to the pupil's decision to continue or not his/her studies and to the particular institution of higher education he/she aspired entry. The maximum likelihood estimates of the yes-no pupil decision indicate the dominance of school grade as a key variable affecting plans for further study. An educational production function revealed in turn that it is mainly parents' education that relates to scholastic achievement. The article also contains empirical estimates of the relative strength of several family and school factors affecting self-selection which may make the results useful to policy makers who attempt to influence the social demand for post-secondary education.