The Reallocation of Labour: An International Comparison Using Job Tenure

This paper sets out the issues surrounding the optimal amount of job reallocation. The key factors are the trainability of the workforce, the volatility of demand and the cost of contract termination. The paper uses an international dataset to characterise the nature of labour reallocation and to isolate the effect of country-specific factors. We investigate the extent to which these country differences can be explained by the trainability of the workforce and employment protection legislation. We find that both of these have a significant role to play in affecting the reallocation of labour. In addition, we show that the impact of the country-specific factors varies dramatically by age and industry: much larger differences are found among older workers than younger ones, and in retail trade than in manufacturing.

An economic model of household income dynamics, with an application to poverty dynamics among American women

The rise in inequality and poverty is one of the most important economic and social issues in recent times. But in contrast to the literature on individual earnings inequality, there has been little work modelling (as opposed to documenting) household income dynamics. This is largely because of the difficulties created by the fact that on top of the human capital issues that arise in personal earnings, individuals are continually forming, dissolving and reforming household units. This paper proposes a framework for modelling household income dynamics. It emphasises the role of household formation and dissolution, and labour market participation. It allows standard economic theory to address the issues of household, as distinct from individual, income and poverty dynamics. We illustrate this framework with an application to poverty rates among young women in the US. We use this model to analyse differences in poverty experiences, particularly between black and white women

Evaluating the provision of school performance information for school choice

One of the key components of any school choice system is the information given to parents as the basis for choice. We develop and implement a framework for determining the optimal performance metrics to help parents choose a school. This approach combines the three major critiques of the usefulness of performance tables into a natural, implementable metric. The best content for school performance tables is the statistic that best answers the question: “In which feasible choice school will a particular child achieve the highest exam score?” We implement this approach for 500,000 students in England for a range of performance measures. Using performance tables is strongly better than choosing at random: a child who attends the highest ex ante performing school within their choice set will ex post do better than the average outcome in their choice set twice as often as they will do worse.school choice, performance tables

Ethnic Segretation in England's Schools

We document ethnic segregation in secondary schools in England in 2001 in order to contribute to the debate on the degree of ethnic group social integration. We use indices of dissimilarity and isolation to compare the patterns of segregation across nine ethnic groups. We find that levels of ethnic segregation in England¿s schools are high, with considerable variation both across LEAs and across different minority ethnic groups. By combining the two indices we are able to identify areas of particular concern as scoring highly on both. Finally, we show that ethnic segregation is only weakly related to income segregation.England, ethnic segregation, segregation indices, schools, minority group differences, spatial income clustering

Ethnic Segregation in England's Schools

We document ethnic segregation in secondary schools in England in 2001 in order to contribute to the debate on the degree of ethnic group social integration. We use indices of dissimilarity and isolation to compare the patterns of segregation across nine ethnic groups. We find that levels of ethnic segregation in England’s schools are high, with considerable variation both across LEAs and across different minority ethnic groups. By combining the two indices we are able to identify areas of particular concern as scoring highly on both. For pupils of Asian origin, we find that these areas coincide almost exactly with the locations of the severe disorders in the summer of 2001. Finally, we show that ethnic segregation is only weakly related to income segregation.ethnic segregation, schools, spatial income clustering

Early Health Related Behaviours and their Impact on Later Life Chances: Evidence from the US (OUT (publ. in Health Economics, 7(5), 1998)

This paper uses evidence from the US to examine the impact of adolescent illegal consumption and violent behaviour on later life chances. Specifically, we look at the effect of such behaviour by young men in late adolscence on productivity and household formation ten years on. We find that alcohol and soft drug consumption have no harmful effects on economic prospects in later life. In contrast, hard drug consumption and violent behaviour in adolescence are both associated with lower productivity even by the time the individuals are in their late twenties. These effects are substantial and affect earnings levels and earnings growth. These results are robust to the inclusion of a rich set of additional controls measuring aspects of the individuals' backgrounds. However, we find no evidence of any of these behaviours significantly affecting household formation.alcohol and drug consumption, anti-social behaviour, earnings, marriage

Using Boundary Changes to Estimate the Impact of School Competition on Test Scores

We study the impact of school choice on test score outcome. It has generally proved difficult to isolate exogenous differences in the degree of competition faced by schools. We run a difference-in-difference analysis, exploiting a local government reorganisation to provide identification. This reorganisation changed the boundaries of education markets. We analyse one cohort of children passing through secondary school before the change, and one afterwards, both for the treated (re-organised) area and for similar control areas. Our point estimates suggest that the fall in competition experienced reduced test scores, but the estimates are not statistically significant.School choice, school competition, educational outcomes

Unemployment Dynamics, Duration and Equilibrium: Evidence from Britain

This paper challenges the consensus on the nature of unemployment dynamics in Britain. We show that the argument that changes in unemployment arise mostly from changes in the duration of unemployment (rather than in the chance of becoming unemployed) is flawed. In fact, while shocks to the outflow do have a part to play up to the late 1970s, the huge changes in unemployment over the last two decades have been mostly driven by inflow shocks. Our model also provides a new explanation of aggregate unemployment persistence based on externalities at a market level rather than individual-level persistence.Unemployment dynamics, unemployment duration, unemployment flows, nonlinear dynamics, persistence

Externalities in the Matching of Workers and Firms in Britain

We provide empirical evidence on the nature of spatial externalities in a matching model for the UK. We use a monthly panel of outflows, unemployment and vacancy stocks data from the registers at Jobcentres in the UK; these are mapped on to travel-to-work areas. We find evidence of significant spill-over effects that are generally in line with the predictions of theory. For example, we find that conditional on local labour market conditions, high unemployment levels in neighbouring areas raise the number of local filled vacancies but lower the local outflow from unemployment.matching model, externalities, spatial dependence, unemployment outflows