Fourthly, we confirm the relevance of attitudes towards debt when analysing higher education choices in England. A 1 standard deviation rise in debt aversion is associated with a 2.4 percentage point reduction in the probability of loan take-up, effecting the take up of both maintenance and tuition fee loans. Albeit modest in size, this finding has implications for social mobility. As other research shows, debt aversion is greatest among low-income students and is related to decisions to enter higher education and the choice of university (Callender and Jackson 2008; Callender and Mason 2017).Continue reading→