We exploit a rich administrative panel data-set for cohorts of Economics students at a UK university in order to identify causal effects of class absence on student performance. We utilise the panel properties of the data to control for unobserved heterogeneity across students and hence for...

This paper investigates the robustness of recent findings on the effect of parental background on child health. We are particularly concerned with the extent to which their finding that income effects on child health are the result of spurious correlation rather than some causal mechanism. A...

Wage premia related to union membership and coverage are examined over 1991-2003, a period involving first decline, then stabilization, of unionization. Differences in union premia across workers and over time are studied using individual-level British Household Panel Survey data and quantile...

The over-representation of certain ethnic minority and immigrant groups in self-employment is, in common with other developed countries, a notable feature of the UK labour market. Compared to substantial growth in self-employment in the 1980s, the 1990s saw overall self-employment rates plateau....

Taxation data have been used to create long-run series for the distribution of top incomes in quite a number of countries. Most of these studies have focused on the national experience of individual countries, but we can also learn from cross-country comparisons. Comparative analysis is...

This paper focuses on the links between informal care provision and labour market activity at the sub-national level. Within-country analysis of this issue has been very limited to date despite the wide regional variations in informal care provision that often exist. This issue is important in...

Self‐employment constitutes a vital part of the economy since entrepreneurs can provide not only employment for themselves but also for others. The link between self‐employment and immigration is, however, complex since self‐employment can be viewed as both a haven from the paid labour...

This paper looks at the effects of unemployment on re-employment wage for men using the first seven waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) conducted over the period 1991- 1997. In particular, how the effect of an interruption changes over time, and whether the type of interruption...

This paper investigates the relationship between attendance at nursery school and children's outcomes in adolescence. In particular, we are interested in child cognitive development at ages 11, 14 and 16, intentions towards tertiary education, economic activity in early adulthood, and in a group...