The sustainability of a university can be questioned from the perspective of three functional goals, henceforth setting the analytical framework: (i) the development of suited knowledge (dynamic and evolving, mirroring the complexity of the socioeconomic environment, definitely internationalised...

A number of powerful forces have produced uneven opportunities for occupational advancement in Scotland. Edinburgh as capital of a devolved nation, hub for financial service activities and regional head office location for many public sector bodies boasts many of the characteristics that one...

This paper reconciles neoclassical models of economic growth (Solow) with the formation of social classes during economic transition (Marx). An environment with missing capital markets and no labor divisibility is shown to lead to a steady state with no aggregate inefficiencies, but a very...

Income poverty in Germany has reached its highest level for twenty years. This statistic is often seen as proof of the existence and growth of a 'decoupled underclass'. In other scenarios large sections of society appear to be facing collapse into poverty. If the duration of individual phases of...

Nach den Armuts- und Reichtumsberichten der Bundesregierung hat die Einkommensarmut in Deutschland den höchsten Stand seit 20 Jahren erreicht. Dieser statistische Befund wird vielfach als Beleg für die Existenz und das Wachstum einer "abgehängten Unterklasse" gesehen. In anderen Szenarien...

A landmark study published in PNAS (Côté S, House J, Willer R, 2015, 112:15838-15843, doi:10.1073/pnas.1511536112) showed that higher income individuals are less generous than poorer individuals only if they reside in a U.S. state with comparatively large economic inequality. This finding...

In a meritocratic society an individual's economic success is determined by their ability, not by their parents' socio-economic status. We assess whether meritocracy has increased in both the British education system and labour market. The richness of our longitudinal data enables us to look at...

Although past research has found strong social class effects on the decision to undertake higher education in the UK, there is only sparse empirical work investigating social class influences on the choice of degree subject at the undergraduate level. Using Universities' Statistical Record data...

This paper seeks to unpick the complex effects of migration, country of birth, and place of residence in Scotland on individual success in the labour market. We pay specific attention to the labour force experience of English-born residents in Scotland, whom the cross sectional literature...