We study cross-country differences in the aggregate production function whenskilled and unskilled labor are imperfect substitutes. We find that there is a skill biasin cross-country technology differences. Higher-income countries use skilled labormore efficiently than lower-income countries,...

[...]What might account for this link between parentalincome and children’s income? Many economists believethat this relationship is due in large part to differentialhuman-capital investment between high-income andlow-income families. High-income parents can invest inmore (and better)...

Elementary schooling in North America in the early 20th century underwent major changes with the spread of graded schools with multiple classrooms and teachers to semi-urban and rural areas. Detailed schooling records from British Columbia indicate that pupil attendance responded strongly to the...

From 1945 to 1975, fifteen Western European countries passed school-leaving age laws that raised the number of years of compulsory schooling for the first time after the Second World War. In order to understand the driving forces behind the increase in compulsory schooling and to explain the...

Despite the kind of scholarly attention that has been attracted in the field ofChinese economic history in the past half a century or so, basic quantities ofsome basic factors have remained disagreed. Chinese population is one of them.For example, for the post-1350 period, the gap between...

This paper explores the links between school, family and areabackground influences during adolescence and later adult economicoutcomes. The empirical analysis is based on data covering the period1979 to 1996, drawn from the 1979 US National Longitudinal Survey ofYouth. For a sample of...

In order to assess the roles of schooling and educational qualifications inthe emergence of adult social exclusion, a series of detailed regressionmodels were explored separately for men and women for each of a widerange of indicators of adult disadvantage at both ages 23 and 33,...

We examine whether unemployment early in an individual’scareer influences her later employment prospects. We use six yearsof the LFS to create pseudo-cohorts and exploit cross-cohortvariation in unemployment at school-leaving age to identify this.We find heterogeneous responses: for the...

A review of research evidence suggests that low levels of educationalattainment are crucial in generating and sustaining social exclusion. Testscores at school are the most effective predictor of many adult outcomes.School attendance and soft skills are also important. Reviewing the...

In the past decade there has been a minor revolution in how local services are funded.Those delivering the services now have their own budgets. How these budgets arecalculated – how Whitehall pulls the purse strings – are now central issues in social policy.In a new book, CASE members...