Spatial crime patterns and the introduction of the UK minimum wage

In this paper we consider the connection between crime and the labour market in a different way to existing work. We focus on a situation where the introduction of a minimum wage floor to a labour market previously unregulated by minimum wage legislation provided substantial pay increases for low paid workers. From a theoretical perspective we argue that this wage boost has the potential to alter peoples’ incentives to participate in crime. We formulate empirical tests, based upon area-level data in England and Wales, which look at what happened to crime rates before and after the introduction of the national minimum wage to the UK labour market in April 1999. Comparing police force area-level crime rates before and after the minimum wage introduction produces evidence in line with the notion that changing economic incentives for low wage workers can influence crime

Age 5 cognitive development in England

Children’s development in the early years has been shown to be related to their success in later life in a range of areas including education, employment and crime. Determining why some children do better than others in the early years is a key issue for policy and is crucial in attempts to reduce inequalities. This research examines differences in early child development by examining the factors associated with the cognitive ability of children up to age 5 using cognitive assessments administered as part of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and teacher reports of child ability. The results show that younger children, those with low birth weight, lower parental education, lower income and living in social housing is related both to lower achievement, on average. and the probability of being at the bottom of the distribution of cognitive scores at age 5

Millennium Cohort Study Second Survey: A User's Guide to Initial Findings

This report presents some of the main initial findings of the Second Survey of the Millennium Cohort Study conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, which is based at the Institute of Education, University of London. It is intended to provide an introduction to potential users of the survey and to stimulate further in-depth and longitudinal analysis

Childcare and Mothers' Employment: Approaching the Millennium

Childcare provision in the UK has evolved alongside the expansion of mothers’ employment, transforming the experiences of successive generations. This paper reviews some mixed evidence on outcomes of maternal employment and offers a detailed examination of the working mothers’ use of childcare. In particular, it looks at the differential use of formal and informal childcare provision using the first survey of Millennium Cohort Study, which is compared, as far as possible, with evidence from the earlier birth cohort studies in 1970 and 1958. The affordability and trustworthiness of formal childcare remains a constraint on its use and indirectly on labour supply for some mothers

Quality in early years settings and children’s school achievement

Childcare quality is often thought to be important for influencing children’s subsequent attainment at school. The English Government regulates the quality of early education by setting minimum levels of qualifications for workers and grading settings based on a national Inspectorate (OfSTED). This paper uses administrative data on over two million children to relate performance on national teacher assessments at ages 5 and 7 to the quality characteristics of the nursery they attended before starting school. Results show that staff qualifications and childcare quality ratings have a weak association with teacher assessments at school, based on comparing children who attended different nurseries but attended the same primary school. Our results suggest that although children’s outcomes are related to the nursery they attend, which nurseries are good cannot be predicted by staff qualifications and OfSTED ratings; the measures of quality that Government has focused on

A quantitative analysis of crime and the labour market.

A large number of criminological theories predict a link between crime and the labour market. This thesis takes predictions from those theories and tests them empirically. Using a large range of data and quantitative techniques, this work considers which factors are most associated with crime, while at the same time addressing issues of methodology and interpretation. The thesis consists of seven Chapters. The first introduces the issues surrounding crime and the labour market, describes the theories which inform the research and discuss the existing empirical work in the area. Sections also describe the data and methodological debates of concern in this field. The empirical analysis, which forms the body of the thesis, follows from this introduction in five inter-related Chapters. The first two deal with establishing which variables are most associated with crime, which data are most useful and which methodological techniques are most appropriate. They cover cross-sectional analysis, as well as area level longitudinal data at police force area level and Local Authority level over time. The results point to clear methodological advantages of using area level data and find the most robust correlate of crime to be low wages. The following Chapter uses these findings to frame an analysis of police force area level data in England and Wales. It examines the effect on crime of a substantial pay increase awarded to low wage workers with the introduction of the National Minimum Wage into the UK labour market in April 1999. By comparing crime rates in areas before and after the introduction of the Minimum Wage, it finds that crime fell (in relative terms) in areas where the introduction of the Minimum Wage had the greatest impact. Having consistently found the labour market, and in particular low wages, to be linked to crime, the final two empirical Chapters address issues of gender and age, two of the most important demographic determinants of crime. The first examines the effect of increasing female labour force participation on crime, and finds that rising female employment is positively associated with crimes done by males. Results indicate that this is because increasing female labour supply forces male wages down. Particularly affected are the wages of the low skilled males who are already low paid and are more likely to be on the margins of crime. The second of these Chapters focuses on youth crime and finds that, although labour market variables matter, other variables such as education, truancy and parental involvement with the police matter more. The final Chapter draws the material together, offers concluding comments, places the findings within a policy context and offers suggestions for future research