The ‘lost decade’ of austerity: the UK makes no progress on child wellbeing

Yekaterina Chzhen discusses how the UK fares on child wellbeing when compared to other developed countries. She writes that, although progress had been made on child poverty reduction and child health during the early 2000s, austerity policies meant that the UK has made little progress on key indicators since

The effects of childbirth on women’s activity change and occupational mobility in Europe: Evidence from the European Community Household Panel.

This paper uses comparable longitudinal data from the European Community Household Panel from 1994 to 2001 to examine the effects of recent childbirth on the relative risks of switching to part-time, inactivity or unemployment for full-time women, as well as the effect of switching from full-time time to part-time work on the risk of occupational downgrading, in 13 European countries. Once important human capital and workplace characteristics are controlled for, full-time female workers who gave birth in year t are the most likely to remain full-time the following year only in Denmark and Spain. Full-time women are more likely to switch to part-time work than to remain working full-time in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and the UK, where female part-time rates are relatively high, but also in Italy, where part-time rates are generally low. At the same time, in Ireland, Italy, the UK and Finland, recent childbirth increases the probability of moving from full-time work to unemployment, while in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Austria, the UK and Finland, recent childbirth also increases the risk of switching to inactivity. Substantial evidence of occupational downgrading by skill and occupational hourly wage on switching from full-time to part-time work is found in the majority of the studied countries. Overall, downward occupational moves are substantially more likely amongst workers who switch from full-time to part-time work than amongst the working population at large, both for men and women.women's labour supply ; occupational transitions ; childbirth ; europe

Gender Gaps across the Earnings Distribution in Britain: Are Women Bossy Enough?

This paper investigates gender differences between the log wage distributions of full-time British employees in the public and private sectors. After allowing for positive selection into full-time employment by women, we find significant and substantial gender earnings gaps, and evidence of glass ceilings, in both sectors. The earnings gaps amongst the higher income earners are found to be related to there being a scarcity of senior women in high skilled, white-collar occupations, especially in the public sector.gender, earnings, wage-gap, selection, distribution

Why international comparisons of education should focus on both averages and equality

Each new round of the OECD’s global education survey leads to scrutiny of country rankings based on the average child’s performance, but the new Innocenti Report Card argues that equality in test scores is just as important as average standards. Yekaterina Chzhen and Gwyther Rees, lead authors of the report, illustrate this point in relation to the four nations of the UK

Education for All? Measuring inequality of educational outcomes among 15-year-olds across 39 industrialized nations

Measuring inequality of learning outcomes in a way that provides meaningful benchmarks for national policy while retaining a focus on those students who are ‘hard to reach’ and ‘hard to teach’ is a challenging but vital task in the light of the global post-2015 education agenda. Drawing on PISA 2012 data and its earlier rounds, this paper explores alternative approaches to measuring educational inequality at the ‘bottom-end’ of educational distribution within the cross-national context. Its main aim is to understand how far behind children are allowed to fall in their academic achievement compared to what is considered a standard performance in their country. Under the framework of relative (measured as achievement gap between the median and 10th percentile) and absolute (measured by the percentage of students achieving at a given benchmark) educational disadvantage it examines cross-country rankings as well as national trajectories with reference to overall academic progress.We find that on average across OECD countries around 11% of 15- year-olds lacked skills in solving basic reading, mathematical, as well as science, tasks in 2012, but variation across countries was large. The average achievement gap in mathematics across OECD countries between low-achieving and ‘average’ students stood at around 122 score points; in reading, at 131 score points; and in science, at 124 score points. This paper argues that understanding how the reduction in bottom-end inequality is achieved matters no less than the outcome itself, as it often reflects the level of support provided to low-achieving students. As our analysis shows, narrowing the achievement gap might be due to falling academic standards and have no direct benefit to the ‘bottom group’

Child poverty policies across Europe

"Im ersten der zwei Teile dieses Aufsatzes stellen wir die Ergebnisse einer vergleichenden Analyse der European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) vor, um die Kinderarmut unter die Lupe zu nehmen. Die Kinderarmutsraten in den einzelnen Ländern werden mithilfe von einer konventionellen Einkommensdefinition, Mangelerscheinungen und wirtschaftlichen Zwängen miteinander verglichen. Dabei wird das Ausmaß der Überschneidungen der einzelnen Messungen und Variationen in der Kinderarmut aufgrund der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse, des Alters der Kinder, der Kinderzahl, des Bildungsniveaus der Eltern und des Familientyps untersucht. Danach kommt die logistische Regression zum Einsatz, um zu untersuchen, inwieweit die Kinderarmut in den jeweiligen Ländern variiert, wenn man all diese Ausprägungen berücksichtigt. Im zweiten Teil untersuchen wir, welchen Einfluss familienpolitische Maßnahmen auf die Kinderarmut haben, indem wir Kinderarmutsraten vor und nach der Einbeziehung von Transferleistungen vorstellen, die Staatsausgaben und ihr Verhältnis zur Kinderarmut und - mithilfe von Methoden der Modellierung von Familien - Kinderunterstützungspakete analysieren. Die Kinderarmut nimmt in den meisten EU-Ländern zu. Im Beitrag wird dann argumentiert, dass die Daten darüber, welchen familienpolitischen Maßnahmen funktionieren, nicht wirklich gut genug sind. Die Benefits and Wages-Zeitreihen der OECD sind Beschränkungen unterworfen - die EU sollte in ein Rahmenprogramm investieren, in dem Daten darüber gesammelt werden, wie steuer- und leistungsbezogene familienpolitische Maßnahmen dazu beitragen, die in den Ländern der EU zu bekämpfen." (Autorenreferat)"This article is in two parts. In the first part, we present the results of a comparative analysis of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) to explore child poverty. Countries' child poverty rates are compared using the conventional income definition and deprivation and economic strain. The extent of overlap in these different measures is explored. Variations in child poverty rates by employment, child age, number of children, education level of the parents and family type are explored. Then logistic regression is used to explore how countries' child poverty varies having taken account of these characteristics. In the second part we explore how policy affects child poverty, presenting child poverty rates before and after transfers; analysis of spending and its relationship to child poverty; and the analysis of child benefit packages using model family methods. Child poverty is increasing in most EU countries. The article argues that the data available on what policies work is not really good enough. The OECD Benefits and Wages series is too limited and the EU should invest in a framework that collects data on how tax and benefit policies are working to combat child poverty across the EU." (author's abstract

Employee Training and Wage Dispersion: White and Blue Collar Workers in Britain

We use household panel data to explore the wage returns associated with training incidence and intensity (duration) for British employees. We find these returns differ depending on the nature of the training; who funds the training; the skill levels of the recipient (white or blue collar); the age of the employee; and if the training is with the current employer or not. Using decomposition analysis, training is found to be positively associated with wage dispersion: a virtuous circle of wage gains and training exists in Britain but only for white-collar employees.wage compression, performance, training

Study on Housing Exclusion: Welfare Policies, Housing Provision and Labour Markets

This is a six country comparative study of the relationship between housing, welfare states and labour markets. The study employs both quantitative (using EU-SILC) and qualitative data

The impact of tax credits on mothers' employment

This study reviews the impact of Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit on working mothers. April 2003 saw the introduction of two new tax credits, Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. Although working in different ways, these were both intended to support families with children, reduce child poverty, and make work pay for those on low incomes. They are a central plank of the Labour Government’s ambitious policy of reducing and eventually abolishing child poverty. This report: investigates the impact of the tax credits on the participation of women with children in the labour market ; explores why those eligible to receive these credits do not always take them up ; assesses whether the credits act as an incentive for mothers to reduce their working hours, and ; reviews the policy implications of the findings. The study used data from the three latest available rounds of interviews of the longitudinal Families and Children Study (FACS), 2002/03–2004/05. The methodology also has lessons for those interested in pinpointing the most appropriate way of modelling the impact of the new tax credits