This paper uses national survey data to measure the degree of gender discrimination in the UK labour market in the 1990s and compares this to results from earlier decades. It concludes that discrimination is still an important cause of the gender pay gap: women’s pay would increase by about 10...

The validity of the matching estimator in programme evaluation depends on the completeness of the set of variables used for matching. When an attitudinal variable is relevant for the participation decision, but is either unmeasured or measured only after entry to the programme, estimates of...

The research reported in this was conducted under the project The Social Impacts of Environmental Taxes: Removing Regressivity, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation under it Programme on Environment and Social Concerns. The project is investigating the social implications of environmental...

This paper assesses the potential for reducing attrition bias by replacing survey dropouts with individuals from a refreshment sample, identified using propensity score matching. By linking administrative records with survey data, it is possible to observe outcomes for dropouts and therefore to...

In 2005, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) commissioned research to review international evaluation methodology and literature to help in the preparation of evaluation of the Working for Families (WFF) policy, introduced in 2004 to assist working low- and middle-income families in New...

The research reported in this paper was conducted under the project 'The Social Impacts of Environmental Taxes: Removing Regressivity', funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation under its Prograamme on Environment and Social Concerns. The project is investigating the socil implications of...

The New Deal for Young People was introduced throughout Great Britain in April 1998 as a key element of the government’s welfare-to-work strategy. Participants enter a period of intensive job search known as the ‘Gateway’ and then enter one of four options. In this paper, the relative...

The paper describes a fesibility study carried out for the Employment Service and the Department for Education and Employment in Britain to identify those individuals who, when first registering as umemployed, are likely to be at high rish of becoming long-term unemployed. A simple preidction...

This paper describes an evaluation of a skills training programme for long-term unemployed adults in the UK, for which a random allocation design had been ruled out. After an initial survey of programme leavers, a matched comparison group was constructed from administrative records, based on...

Administrative data from the UK’s main welfare-to-work programme for unemployed and disadvantaged youth is analysed to identify differences in practice between local delivery areas, and to assess their effects on off-welfare outcomes. The findings reveal important similarities in the nature of...