Should I stay or should I go? The effect of London's terrorist attack on the educational choices of Muslims

This paper studies the effect of the London terrorist attacks in July 2005 on the education plans and education decisions of the Muslims teenagers. A backslash of violence against the Muslim community occurred after the London attacks, which could have affected their incentives to continue in full time education. Using panel data on educational attitudes from the ¿Next Steps¿ Survey in England and focusing on the month of the interview to divide individuals between treatment and control groups, I find that the attacks generated a negative impact on the education plans of the Muslims, but not in any other major religion group. This change in education plans, however, did not translate in actual decisions two years later, suggesting that the change in plans was only a momentary reaction that did not last enough to have an impact on the actual education.