Work in Progress

Gender wage gap among young adults: a comparison across four British cohorts (with Alex Bryson, Heather Joshi, Bożena Wielgoszewska and David Wilkinson) 

IZA DP No. 15973, R&R (Labour Economics)

 We study the evolution of the gender wage gap in Britain between 1972 and 2015 among young adults using data from four British birth cohorts born in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 1989/90 on early life factors, human capital, family formation and job characteristics. We account for non-random selection of men and women into the labour market and compare the gender wage gap among graduates and non-graduates. The raw and covariate adjusted gender wage gaps decline over the period among non-graduates, but they rise among young graduates. Adjusting for positive selection into employment increases the size of the gender wage gap in earlier cohorts, but selection is not apparent in the two most recent birth cohorts. Thus the rate of convergence in the wages of young men and women is understated when estimates do not adjust for positive selection in earlier birth cohorts. Differences in traditional human capital variables explain only a very small component of the gender wage gaps among young people in all four cohorts, but occupational gender segregation plays an important role in the later cohorts.  

Perseverance in the classroom: results from a randomised educational intervention in primary schools in England (with Sherria Hoskins and Heather Rolfe), submitted

 This paper studies the effect of a randomised educational intervention aimed at increasing perseverance in the classroom on cognitive outcomes, beliefs and attitudes towards learning. The trial is carried out in 100 primary schools in England. The subjects are Year 6 pupils who are introduced to the idea of resilience, perseverance and incremental intelligence by their teachers over several sessions. Pupils in the in- tervention group perceive significantly less that their intelligence is a fixed trait. The intervention also has a positive but not statistically significant effect on the positive attitude towards learning of treated pupils. However, unlike other related trials in psychology, education and economics, our analysis finds that the intervention has no impact on literacy nor numeracy overall, and that this applies across all pupils includ- ing those eligible for Free School Meals.

Global Competition, UK Labour Market Adjustment and the Brexit Vote (with Rebecca Riley)

  Media: The Times

 We explore the adjustment of local labour markets in the UK to the sharp rise in import competition from low-wage countries since the early 2000s. We find that the increase in UK imports from China and Eastern Europe accelerated the long-term trend decline in UK manufacturing jobs and led to a short-term increase in the unemployment rate in exposed areas. But, many workers in these areas found lower paid low-skilled jobs outside manufacturing, mitigating the effects of import competition on joblessness. Local labour markets that were most exposed to import competition shrank in size relative to other areas as highly educated workers left behind these parts of the UK. We also find that the electorate in exposed areas was more likely to vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Rather than the uneven gains from globalisation, it is the reallocation of highly educated workers across different areas of the UK that accounts for much of this link. When we also consider the rise in exports to low-wage countries, the measured effects of globalisation on local labour markets and the referendum result are less pronounced.

The Changing Nature of Work: What can we learn from Time Use Diaries? (with Lynsey Brown, Rebecca Riley and Mechelle Viernes)

 The world of work is changing. The advancement of digital technologies has led to new business models, gig work and, hastened by the pandemic, the normalisation of remote work. Workers and firms have at their disposal a new set of technologies, with the potential to lead to significant productivity and earnings gains. These phenomena are as yet not fully understood, either in terms of their magnitude or implications for working patterns, the quality of work and worker well-being, and the boundary between work and leisure time.  By collecting information on individuals’ activities within a 24-hour window, the location and enjoyment of these activities, use of technology, as well as demographics, Time Use diaries offer the potential to develop better understanding of the changing nature of work. We exploit recent and ongoing investments in Time Use data collection in the UK to study changes in working patterns and the quality of work for different demographic groups. We make recommendations for innovation in Time Use diary collection to enhance the value of these data for understanding the quality of work and productivity from the view of the employee and the employer.

Academies and the competition in local education markets (with Olmo Silva, in progress)

 The project seeks to analyse the effects of the introduction of academies on pupils attending other types of schools – potentially via market competition effects and through the change in the per-pupil funding from Local Authorities. This project also seeks to analyse how the two phases of the academy school reform affected equality of opportunity among children of different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Outcomes that will be explored include school resources and pupil attainment – both overall and potential heterogeneous effects depending on ethnic and social background (to evaluate the impact on equality of opportunity). Specific research questions include: How does competition from academies affect outcomes among pupils in other types of schools? Are there heterogeneous effects depending on pupils’ ethnicity / language background / socio-economic status / prior academic achievement? Does academy competition make other schools more effective? How do LAs with an expanding number of academies allocate their reduced resources between education services and fixed-costs activities? Do academies receive more per-pupil resources compared to non-academy schools?

Internal migration of young people in England and social mobility (in progress)

Parental time investment in children and child's wellbeing (with Almudena Sevilla, Oriel Sullivan and Valentina Tonei, in progress)

Board composition and gender wage gap in the UK (with Marcello Sartarelli, in progress)