Youth employment, academic performance and labour market outcomes: Production functions and policy effects

We use instrumental variables for teenage employment opportunities to identify the causal effects of part-time work during compulsory education in England on educational performance at age 16 and labour market outcomes to age 25. We identify the total ‘policy effect’, partly driven by resulting changes in other inputs, and the direct effect or ‘production function parameter’, which holds these constant. The total effects of an additional hour of part-time work per week at age 15 include reducing educational performance in school-leaving qualifications by males by 2.5% and females by 6.7% of a standard deviation, and increasing duration of unemployment experience before age 25 by two months. Direct effects on long-run outcomes are generally beneficial for women and less so for men. What human capital or signalling benefits there are to teenage part-time work are substantially offset by the effects of reduced educational investments

Access and Returns to Unpaid Graduate Work Experience

We use longitudinal data on graduates from UK universities to evaluate whether unpaid work experience is a stepping stone into paid or stable employment. We document the characteristics and occupations of recent graduates taking unpaid work experience, then use propensity score matching to estimate the treatment effect of unpaid work experience on outcomes 3.5 years after graduation. We find negative treatment effects compared with initially being in paid work, on annual salary (£2900), job security and attainment of a professional occupation (both 9%pts). We find no evidence of a benefit to salary or job attributes compared with initially being out of the labour force

The effect of foreign students in higher education on native students’ outcomes

This paper offers new evidence of the role of immigration in shaping the educational and labour market outcomes of natives. We use administrative data on the entire English higher education system and exploit the idiosyncratic variation of foreign students within university-degree across four cohorts of undergraduate students. Foreign peers have zero to mild effects on natives’ educational outcomes, such as graduation probability and degree classification. Significant effects are found on displacement across universities and degree types after enrolment, although these outcomes are rare occurrences. In line with the mild effects on education outcomes, we also find little evidence of foreign peers affecting early labour market outcomes of native graduates

Going universal. The impact of free school lunches on child body weight outcomes

We study the impact on young children’s bodyweight of switching from means-tested to universal provision of nutritious free school meals in England, exploiting identifying variation in the timing of weight measurements. We show that exposure to high quality universal free lunches increases healthy weight prevalence and reduces obesity prevalence and BMI by the end of the first year of school. The effect seems driven by substitution of home-produced lunches with school meals among children not eligible under means-testing, with little evidence of income or parental labour supply effects. This suggests universal provision can improve the diets of relatively well-off pupils

Academic and non-Academic Investments at University: the Role of Expectations, Preferences and Constraints

This paper estimates a discrete choice model of time allocation decisions made by university students. We consider investments in academic and non-academic activities, such as job placements or volunteering. Identification is achieved using data collected through a recent survey of UK university students on subjective expectations about the returns to these activities, and the enjoyment students derive from them. Unobserved heterogeneity in the choice set is addressed using a sufficient set logit method. The analysis reveals significant ethnic differences in the level of investments, expected academic and labour market returns, and enjoyment of academic and non-academic activities. Simulations suggest that existing constraints play an important role in explaining ethnic gaps in investments

The Effect of Foreign Students in Higher Education on Native Students’ Outcomes

This paper offers new evidence of the role of immigration in shaping the educational and labour market outcomes of natives. We use administrative data on the entire English higher education system and exploit the idiosyncratic variation of foreign students within university-degree across four cohorts of undergraduate students. Foreign peers have zero to mild effects on natives' educational outcomes, such as graduation probability and degree classification. Significant effects are found on displacement across universities and degree types after enrolment, although these outcomes are rare occurrences. In line with the mild effects on education outcomes, we also find little evidence of foreign peers affecting early labour market outcomes of native graduates

Unpaid work and access to science professions

Unpaid work in the sciences is advocated as an entry route into scientific careers. We compared the success of UK science graduates who took paid or unpaid work six-months after graduation in obtaining a high salary or working in a STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics) field 3.5 years later. Initially taking unpaid work was associated with lower earnings and lower persistence in STEM compared with paid work, but those using personal connections to obtain unpaid positions were as likely to persist in STEM as paid workers. Obtaining a position in STEM six months after graduation was associated with higher rates of persistence in STEM compared with a position outside STEM for both paid and unpaid workers, but the difference is considerably smaller for unpaid workers. Socio-economic inequality in the likelihood of obtaining entry in STEM by taking an unpaid position is a well-founded concern for scientific workforce diversity

The labour supply effect of Education Maintenance Allowance and its implications for parental altruism

Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was a UK government cash transfer paid directly to children aged 16–18, in the first 2 years of post-compulsory full-time education. This paper uses the labour supply effect of EMA to infer the magnitude of the transfer response made by the parent, and so test for the presence of an ‘effectively altruistic’ head-of-household, who redistributes resources among household members so as to maximise overall welfare. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, an EMA payment of £30 per week is found to reduce teenagers’ labour supply by 3 h per week and probability of employment by 13 % points from a base of 43 %. We conclude that parents withdraw cash and in-kind transfers from their children to a value of between 22 and 86 % of what the child receives in EMA. This means we reject the hypothesis of an effectively altruistic head-of-household, and argue that making this cash transfer directly to the child produces higher child welfare than if the equivalent transfer were made to parents

The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook. A practical guide for improving vaccine communication and fighting misinformation

This handbook is for journalists, doctors, nurses, policy makers, researchers, teachers, students, parents – in short, it’s for everyone who wants to know more about the COVID-19 vaccines, how to talk to others about them, how to challenge misinformation about the vaccines. This handbook is self-contained but additionally provides access to a “wiki” of more detailed information

The labour supply effect of Education Maintenance Allowance and its implications for parental altruism

Abstract Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was a UK government cash transfer paid directly to children aged 16-18, in the first 2 years of post-compulsory full-time education. This paper uses the labour supply effect of EMA to infer the magnitude of the transfer response made by the parent, and so test for the presence of an 'effectively altruistic' head-of-household, who redistributes resources among household members so as to maximise overall welfare. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, an EMA payment of £30 per week is found to reduce teenagers' labour supply by 3 h per week and probability of employment by 13 % points from a base of 43 %. We conclude that parents withdraw cash and in-kind transfers from their children to a value of between 22 and 86 % of what the child receives in EMA. This means we reject the hypothesis of an effectively altruistic head-of-household, and argue that making this cash transfer directly to the child produces higher child welfare than if the equivalent transfer were made to parents