Employment pathways and wage progression for mothers in low-skilled work: evidence from three British datasets

This CASEbrief reports on the findings of recent research examining the employment pathways followed by mothers entering low-skilled work. The project was originally framed under a Labour Government which placed considerable emphasis on encouraging women back into work when their children were relatively young (pre-school age), first through tax credits and childcare subsidies and subsequently with greater compulsion. A central justification underlying the provision of greater financial support to mothers in employment than to those staying at home was the assumption – frequently expressed in government documents – that even a low-skilled job was a stepping-stone to improved prospects, with a long-run pay-off both for mothers and for the Treasury. We wanted to know how justified this assumption was: how often did mothers’ low-skilled work result in stable employment and progression up the earnings distribution out of low pay

Poverty, inequality and public cash transfers: lessons from Latin America

As governments consider which policy parameters to select when designing a new cash transfer and how to fine-tune existing transfers, information on the design options available, on the contribution of specific cash transfer parameters to outcomes and on the implementation details that facilitate these linkages, is critical. Focusing on public cash transfers that explicitly pursue a poverty-reduction objective, this paper identifies the central issues and trade-offs associated with variations in the design details of transfers, targeting and conditionality. These issues are then examined with reference to the experience of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in nine countries in Latin America. The paper highlights the variations in CCT design and implementation and reviews the evidence of their impact on poverty and inequality, paying particular attention to estimates, where they are available, of the intended and unintended effects of separate cash transfer components. In the final section, the paper discusses the policy implications that arise from the CCT experience in Latin American countries

Wealth accumulation in Great Britain 1995-2005:the role of house prices and the life cycle

This paper examines trends in the distribution of household wealth in Great Britain from 1995 to 2005 using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The data show that wealth is very unevenly distributed and reveal a widening absolute gap over the period between wealthier households and those with no or negative wealth. However, in relative terms, wealth grew fastest for households in the middle of the distribution and inequality measured by the Gini coefficient decreased. This mainly reflected housing wealth becoming a greater share of total net worth, more equally distributed, and the highest percentage increase in housing wealth taking place in the middle of the distribution. To estimate the distributional impact of the remarkable rise in house prices which defined this period, we simulate the distribution of net 2005 wealth in the hypothetical scenario in which house prices remained at their 1995 levels in real terms and find that the reduction in wealth inequality is almost entirely accounted for by changes in house prices. The paper also finds that, controlling for factors such as age, households that gained most from the house price boom were mortgagors, in particular those that were initially wealthier, and were advantaged in other ways such as by level of educational qualification

Pathways and penalties: mothers’ employment trajectories and wage growth in the Families and Children Study

This paper uses panel data from the British Families and Children Study to analyse the employment patterns of women with children and the ways in which part-time work and interruptions in paid employment influence the wages of working mothers. It pays particular attention to how the relationship between employment trajectory and wage progression compares for higher-skilled and lower-skilled mothers and for mothers of younger and older children. We find that mothers follow a wide variety of employment pathways, the majority working part-time, moving between full-time and part-time employment or moving in and out of work as they combine motherhood with paid employment. In support of results from existing research on the “part-time” wage penalty and the “motherhood gap”, we find that there are wage penalties associated with unstable work trajectories. Our analysis also shows that such wage penalties are significantly smaller for lower-skilled than higher-skilled women and are experienced by mothers of children of all ages, although the impact appears larger for mothers of younger children. In the final sections, the paper discusses the policy implications that arise from these findings with reference to recent debates on maternal employment, wage progression and poverty reduction

Conditional cash transfers as a tool of social policy

The design of public cash transfers involves a careful balancing of policy priorities and objectives. Variations in the rationale for a conditional cash transfer shape benefit amounts, coverage, duration of programme participation, targeting practices and the definition of conditionality. Drawing on the experience of low- and middle-income countries in Latin America, this article highlights differences in the design of CCTs and the central issues and trade-offs associated with income transfers, targeting and conditionality. It also reviews the evidence on the impact of CCTs on income poverty, service utilisation and outcomes in education and health

From social safety net to social policy?: the role of conditional cash transfers in welfare state development in Latin America

During the 1990s, conditional cash transfers (CCTs) were adopted by countries across Latin America as central elements of their poverty reduction strategies. Alongside other developments in the area of social assistance, CCTs represent an opportunity for countries to develop an integrated and inclusive set of social policies. At the same time, particular CCT features risk promoting the further residualisation and fragmentation of safety nets. Drawing on the experience of six countries in Latin America, this paper identifies the variations and recent trends in CCT design and implementation. Based on this review, it considers the contribution of CCTs to the potential transition from a largely absent or minimal safety net to a coordinated system of social policies