Expectations, reservation wages and employment: Evidence from British panel data

In this paper, we explore the relationship between expectations and reservation wages for a sample of unemployed individuals using panel data drawn from the British Household Panel Survey, 1996 to 2005. To be specific, we initially investigate the determinants of expectations relating to the individual´s financial situation and employment prospects over the next 12 months. Our findings suggest that job search and education are positively associated with financial optimism and confidence regarding future employment prospects. Conversely, the length of time out of employment and age are associated with pessimistic expectations. Propensity score matching techniques enable us to adopt a quasi experimental approach to ascertain how an individual´s expectations regarding their future financial situation as well as expectations regarding securing future employment influence the setting of reservation wages at the individual level. Optimism over future finances and future job prospects are associated with a higher reservation wage in both the matched and unmatched estimates. Furthermore, confidence over securing future employment is associated with a higher probability of actually gaining employment in the next period

Bullying, Education and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from the National Child Development Study

We explore the effect of bullying at school on the educational attainment of a sample of individuals drawn from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS). Our empirical findings suggest that school bullying has an adverse effect on human capital accumulation both at and beyond school. Moreover, the impact of bullying on educational attainment at age sixteen is found to be similar in magnitude to class size effects, which have attracted recent attention in the economics literature. Furthermore, in contrast to class size effects, the adverse influence of bullying on human capital attainment remains during adulthood. In addition, being bullied at school directly influences wages received during adulthood as well as indirectly influencing wages via educational attainment

Social Interaction and Stock Market Participation: Evidence from British Panel Data

This paper uses data from the British National Child Development Study to investigate the relationship between social interaction and participation in the stock market through holding stocks and/or shares at the individual level. In accordance with the existing literature, the results reveal that a positive relationship exists between social interaction and stock market participation, when both are measured concurrently. Furthermore, this relationship prevails across a range of measures of social interaction and social capital. In addition, we make a potentially important contribution to the existing literature by exploiting the panel nature of the data in order to explore the robustness of the cross-sectional findings. We find that the positive relationship between stock market participation and social interaction prevails within a fixed effects logit framework, which controls for time invariant unobserved effects

Reservation Wages, Expected Wages and Labour Market Outcomes: Analysis of Individual Level Panel Data

Using individual level panel data, we analyse the divergence between an unemployed individual´s reservation wage, as well as their expected wage, and their predicted market wage, focusing upon how job search activities influence the potential divergences. In addition, using propensity score matching techniques, we explore the implications of such divergences for future employment and wages. Our findings, which are consistent with job search theory, suggest that reservation wages (and expected wages) that are high relative to the predicted market wage influence both future employment and future wages

Financial Expectations, Consumption and Saving: A Microeconomic Analysis

We explore the determinants of individuals´ financial expectations using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) 1991-2001. Our findings suggest that individuals´ financial predictions are influenced by both the life cycle and the business cycle. We also investigate the extent to which the accuracy of past financial expectations affects current financial expectations. Interestingly, only past financial optimism matters, regardless of the accuracy of the prediction. We also explore the relationship between financial realisations and expectations and we find that expectations tend to fall short of financial realisations. Finally, we investigate the relationship between financial expectations, savings and consumption. Our findings suggest that financial optimism is inversely associated with savings and that current financial expectations serve to predict future consumption

Social Interaction and Intergenerational Skill Transfer

We explore the relationship between educational attainment and social interaction using individual level data from the British National Child Development Study. To be specific, we analyze whether an intergenerational aspect to this relationship exists by examining the relationship between the educational attainment of children and the degree of formal social activity undertaken by their parents. In accordance with the existing literature, our results support a positive association between education and social interaction. Furthermore, our results suggest that children´s scores in reading, mathematics and vocabulary tests are positively associated with the extent of their parents´ formal social interaction. This relationship is robust to controlling for the degree of intra-family based social interaction and the social activities of the child

Reservation Wages, Expected wages and the duration of Unemployment: evidence from British Panel data

In this paper we analyse the role of wage expectations in an empirical model of incomplete spells of unemployment and reservation wages. To be specific, we model the duration of unemployment, reservation wages and expected wages simultaneously for a sample of individuals who are not in work, where wage expectations are identified via an exogenous policy shock based upon the introduction of Working Family Tax Credits (WFTC) in the UK. The results from the empirical analysis, which is based on the British Household Panel Survey, suggest that WFTC eligibility served to increase expected wages and that expected wages are positively associated with reservation wages. In addition, incorporating wage expectations into the econometric framework was found to influence the magnitude of the key elasticities: namely the elasticity of unemployment duration with respect to the reservation wage and the elasticity of the reservation wage with respect to unemployment duration

Following in Your Parents' Footsteps? Empirical Analysis of Matched Parent-Offspring Test Scores

In this paper, we explore whether an intergenerational relationship exists between the reading and mathematics test scores, taken at ages 7, 11 and 16, of a cohort of individuals born in 1958 and the equivalent test scores of their offspring measured in 1991. Our results suggest that how the parent performs in reading and mathematics during their childhood is positively related to the corresponding reading and mathematics test scores of their offspring as measured at a similar age. Our findings imply that parental ability in numeracy and literacy as a child is positively associated with the ability in numeracy and literacy of their offspring. With respect to gender, a father´s (mother´s) test score generally has a positive influence on the test scores of their daughter (son)

Cloud Top Scanning radiometer (CTS): User's guide

The CTS maps the Earth's surface with a resolution of 0.1 km from an altitude of 18km with 60km side-to-side coverage of the field. It has three spectral channels. The 0.625 micrometer centered visual channel detects reflectance to within 1 percent. The 6.75 micrometer centered water vapor channel detects changes in temperature of less than one degree Kelvin at 175 K. The 11.5 micrometer centered infrared window channel detects changes of less one half degree Kelvin at 175 K. The data can be converted graphically into three display images of the scene. Values for scene temperature and albedo are calculated from calibration equations. The equations were derived from in-situ and laboratory measurements. Intercomparisons of the flight data temperatures with ground based and other remote sensor results established the certainty of the derived temperature values to within 3 K over a wide temperature range (180 to 320 K). The system performance, calibration, and operation is successful and the engineering information describing this system should prove useful to scientists and potential users of the data