Part time employment and happiness: A cross-country analysis

The relationship between part time employment and job satisfaction is analysed for mothers in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Spain and the UK. The impact of working part time on subjective life satisfaction and mental well-being is additionally analysed for British mothers. Cultural traditions concerning women’s role in society, and institutional differences between the countries are exploited. Results indicate that poor quality jobs can diminish any positive well-being repercussions of part time employment. The results additionally suggest that part time mothers in the UK experience higher levels of job satisfaction but not of overall life satisfaction as compared to their full time counterparts.part time work, job satisfaction, well being

The Impact of Distance to Nearest Education Institution on the Post-Compulsory Education Participation Decision

This paper uses data sources with the unique capacity to measure distances between home addresses and education institutions, to investigate, for the first time, the effect that such distance has on an individual's post-compulsory education participation decision. The results show that there is no overall net effect. However, when attention is focussed on young people who are on the margin of participating in post-compulsory education (according to their prior attainment and family background) and when post-compulsory education is distinguished by whether it leads to academic or vocational qualifications, then greater distance to nearest education institution is seen to have a significant impact on the decision to continue in full-time post-compulsory education. This finding has relevance for education participation in rural areas relative to urban areas.post-compulsory education participation, travel distance

The Growth and Valuation of Generic Skills

Using a method for measuring job skills derived from survey data on detailed work activities, we show that between 1997 and 2001 there was a growth in Britain in the utilisation of computing skills, literacy, numeracy, technical know-how, high-level communication skills, planning skills, client communication skills, horizontal communication skills, problem-solving and checking skills. Computer skills and high-level communication skills carry positive wage premia, as shown both in cross-section hedonic wage equations and through a within-cohorts change analysis. No part of the gender pay gap can be accounted for by differences in levels of generic skills between men and women.skills, wages, computers

Sectoral productivity differences across the UK

The research was commissioned to enhance understanding of what is driving national productivity and in particular what might explain the gap between the UK and some of its international competitors. Previous work has suggested that the productivity gap has a strong sectoral and spatial dimension and it was important to enhance understanding of this. This report analyses differences in labour productivity - defined as output per person in employment - between the countries and regions of the UK over the period 1992-2002. The study was intended to explore the variations in productivity across the UK and in particular to shed more light on the contribution that the sectoral distribution of employment makes to spatial productivity differences

The Distribution and Determinants of Job Vacancies: Evidence From the 2001 Employers Skill Survey

Despite their obvious importance for employment determination and the operation of labour markets, little is known about the distribution, nature or determinants of job vacancies. This paper describes and analyses the results of a large-scale establishment-level survey for England conducted in Spring 2001. It documents the distribution of unfilled jobs and investigates the factors which influence firms' recruitment practices and difficulties in a period of strong labour demand. While there is considerable heterogeneity in the stock of vacancies, it is possible to identify a downward sloping UV relationship between vacancies and the local unemployment rate.vacancies, skill-shortages, labour demand, local unemployment, UV curves

Persistent Poverty and Children's Cognitive Development: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

We use data from the four sweeps of the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) of children born at the turn of the century to document the impact that poverty, and in particular persistent poverty, has on their cognitive development in their early years. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), we show that children born into poverty have significantly lower test scores at age 3, age 5 and age 7, and that continually living in poverty in their early years has a cumulative negative impact on their cognitive development. For children who are persistently in poverty throughout their early years, their cognitive development test scores at age 7 are more than 20 percentile ranks lower than children who have never experienced poverty, even after controlling for a wide range of background characteristics and parenting investment.child poverty, cognitive development