The other margin : do minimum wages cause working hours adjustments for low-wage workers?

This paper estimates the impact of the introduction of the UK minimum wage on the working hours of low-wage employees using difference-in-differences estimators. The estimates using the employer-based New Earnings Surveys indicate that the introduction of the minimum wage reduced the basic hours of low-wage workers by between 1 and 2 hours per week. The effects on total paid hours are similar (indicating negligible effects on paid overtime) and lagged effects dominate the smaller and less significant initial effects within this. Estimates using the employee-based Labour Force Surveys are typically less significant.minimum wages ; working hours ; labour demand ; difference-in-differences estimator

The Implementation of Two Cooperative Learning Structures, Rally Coach and Teams-Games-Tournaments, in High School Chemistry Courses

To combat the obstacles that students experience in chemistry, two cooperative learning strategies, Rally Coach and Teams-Games-Tournaments, were implemented in five chemistry courses at East Ascension High School. Rally Coach called for two students to work as a pair and peer tutor to successfully complete practice problems for each lesson. Teams-Games-Tournaments required students to work in groups of four to complete practice problems and compete for team points as a review. Every student experienced both learning strategies. A comparison was made to see which cooperative learning strategy better helped student performance, including comparisons of effects on different student demographics and question types. To compare the strategies, normalized learning gains were calculated using pre- and post-test exams for each experimental unit. Rally Coach was found to significantly outperform Teams-Games-Tournaments in one of the units. Statistically significant differences also existed in comparisons of students with free or reduced lunch, different genders and grade levels, as well as a difference in performance on multiple choice questions. Student surveys indicated more enjoyment with Teams-Games-Tournaments but both strategies led to positive results

The other margin: do minimum wages cause working hours adjustments for low-wage workers?

This paper estimates the impact of the introduction of the UK minimum wage on the working hours of low-wage employees using difference-in-differences estimators. The estimates using the employer-based New Earnings Surveys indicate that the introduction of the minimum wage reduced the basic hours of low-wage workers by between 1 and 2 hours per week. The effects on total paid hours are similar (indicating negligible effects on paid overtime) and lagged effects dominate the smaller and less significant initial effects within this. Estimates using the employee-based Labour Force Surveys are typically less significant

The Models of Authority Project: Extending the DigiPal Framework for Script and Decoration

The DigiPal project for palaeography has featured in previous DH conferences. It includes a generalised framework for the description and analysis of handwriting, initially applied to Old English of the eleventh century but subsequently extended to Latin, Hebrew, and decoration; it incorporates a novel model for describing handwriting; and a recent addition allows the embedding of linked palaeographical images into prose description. The purpose of this poster is to present new developments which form part of two further major grants, one of which is the Models of Authority project. Specifically, the focus here is on the incorporation of textual content into the model for handwriting

Can providing safe cycling infrastructure encourage people to cycle more when it rains? The use of crowdsourced cycling data (Strava)

Many local authorities in the UK and other developed countries have spent a substantial amount of time and money providing safe cycling infrastructure to improve cycling environments. However, it is not clear whether these expensive physical investments are an effective strategy to encourage people to cycle more in cities where there is a high level of precipitation. The evidence is limited, partly due to data limitations. We used crowdsourced cycling data (taken from the Strava activity-tracking app) and fixed-effects panel regression models to investigate whether providing safe cycling infrastructure could be an effective way to overcome adverse weather conditions. We selected the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland because of the current size and scope of investments. We found that providing safe cycle paths could encourage people to cycle more, especially on dry days. However, findings suggested that rainy cities like Glasgow may not have realised the full benefits of safe cycling infrastructure because there are larger reductions in the volume of cycling on rainy days on these routes. Planners, especially from cities with a high level of precipitation, should consider how to improve cycle paths to overcome adverse weather and other policies (e.g., providing shower facilities at workplaces, incentives to cycle, etc.) to increase cyclists’ resilience to bad weather

Glasgow's spatial arrangement of deprivation over time: methods to measure it and meanings for health

Background: Socio-economic deprivation is a key driver of population health. High levels of socio-economic deprivation have long been offered as the explanation for exceptionally high levels of mortality in Glasgow, Scotland. A number of recent studies have, however, suggested that this explanation is partial. Comparisons with Liverpool and Manchester suggest that mortality rates have been higher in Glasgow since the 1970s despite very similar levels of deprivation in these three cities. It has, therefore, been argued that there is an “excess” of mortality in Glasgow; that is, mortality rates are higher than would be expected given the city’s age, gender, and deprivation profile. A profusion of possible explanations for this excess has been proffered. One hypothesis is that the spatial arrangement of deprivation might be a contributing factor. Particular spatial configurations of deprivation have been associated with negative health impacts. It has been suggested that Glasgow experienced a distinct, and more harmful, development of spatial patterning of deprivation. Measuring the development of spatial arrangements of deprivation over time is technically challenging however. Therefore, this study brought together a number of techniques to compare the development of the spatial arrangement of deprivation in Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester between 1971 and 2011. It then considered the plausibility of the spatial arrangement of deprivation as a contributing factor to Glasgow’s high levels of mortality. Methods: A literature review was undertaken to inform understandings of relationships between the spatial arrangement of deprivation and health outcomes. A substantial element of this study involved developing a methodology to facilitate temporal and inter-city comparisons of the spatial arrangement of deprivation. Key contributions of this study were the application of techniques to render and quantify whole-landscape perspectives on the development of spatial patterns of household deprivation, over time. This was achieved by using surface mapping techniques to map information relating to deprivation from the UK census, and then analysing these maps with spatial metrics. Results: There is agreement in the literature that the spatial arrangement of deprivation can influence health outcomes, but mechanisms and expected impacts are not clear. The temporal development of Glasgow’s spatial arrangement of deprivation exhibited both similarities and differences with Liverpool and Manchester. Glasgow often had a larger proportion of its landscape occupied with areas of deprivation, particularly in 1971 and 1981. Patch density and mean patch size (spatial metrics which provide an indication of fragmentation), however, were not found to have developed differently in Glasgow. Conclusion: The spatial extent of deprivation developed differently in Glasgow relative to Liverpool and Manchester as the results indicated that deprivation was substantially more spatially prevalent in Glasgow, this was particularly pronounced in 1971 and 1981. This implies that exposure of more affluent and deprived people to each other has been greater in Glasgow. Given that proximal inequality has been related to poor health outcomes, it would appear plausible that this may have adversely affected Glasgow’s mortality rates. If this is the case, however, it is unlikely that this will account for a substantial proportion of Glasgow’s excess mortality. Further research into Glasgow’s excess mortality is, therefore, required

Using population surfaces and spatial metrics to track the development of deprivation landscapes in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester between 1971 and 2011

Measuring change in the spatial arrangement of deprivation over time, and making international, inter-city comparisons, is technically challenging. Meeting these challenges offers a means of furthering understanding and providing new insights into the geography of urban poverty and deprivation. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to mapping and analysing spatio-temporal patterns of household deprivation, assessing the distribution at the landscape level. The approach we develop has advantages over existing techniques because it is applicable in situations where i) conventional approaches based on choropleth mapping are not feasible due to boundary change and/or ii) where spatial relationships at a landscape level are of interest. Through the application of surface mapping techniques to disaggregate census count data, and by applying spatial metrics commonly used in ecology, we were able to compare the development of the spatial arrangement of deprivation between 1971 and 2011 in three UK cities of particular interest: Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool. Applying three spatial metrics – spatial extent, patch density, and mean patch size – revealed that over the 40 year period household deprivation has been more spatially dispersed in Glasgow. This novel approach has enabled an analysis of deprivation distributions over time which is less affected by boundary change and which accurately assesses and quantifies the spatial relationships between those living with differing levels of deprivation. It thereby offers a new approach for researchers working in this area

Food security in a COVID-impacted tourism destination: A case study of Queenstown, New Zealand

This report outlines the food (in)security situation in Queenstown, New Zealand in the context of its COVID-affected tourism downturn. It is illustrative of the global pandemic’s disruption to the tourism-dependent town and the ways in which this impacted food security within the community. The project used interview data from 13 interviewees each active in the Queenstown community in food welfare, social support, or local government. Supplementary data was gathered via a desk-based document and media search. Community-based food welfare providers reported high demand for food parcels largely due to COVID-19-related income reductions and job losses. Food welfare demand was strong from the commencement of the nationwide lockdown in March 2020, and remained relatively consistent in subsequent months as national borders remained closed to international visitors. Interviewees reported high numbers of migrants accessing food welfare as the result of tourism job losses, reduced shifts, and loss of access to meals they had received in hospitality roles previously. Many of these migrants were ineligible for government support. COVID-19 food security issues have been exacerbated by high demand for housing and high density living, which has reduced the amount of land available for home vegetable planting. This is limiting own food production and access to affordable high-nutrition foods. Reliance on the food welfare sector as a long term strategy is not sustainable if food security is the goal, however the array of community groups that offer food welfare may be able to proactively bolster food security, concurrent with their food welfare operations, and so enable food welfare recipients to transition to less vulnerability and greater food security in the future. Our findings caution against sectoral ‘self-sufficiency’ because high degrees of independence within sectors can translate to vulnerability in the face of disruption. Inter-sectoral integration – particularly within the agriculture, food and tourism sectors – is one avenue by which each sector could become more resilient. Further research in this area could identify pathways for building resilience

Feasibility trial evaluation of a physical activity and screen-viewing course for parents of 6 to 8 year-old children : Teamplay

Background: Many children spend too much time screen-viewing (watching TV, surfing the internet and playing video games) and do not meet physical activity (PA) guidelines. Parents are important influences on children’s PA and screen-viewing (SV). There is a shortage of parent-focused interventions to change children’s PA and SV. Methods: Teamplay was a two arm individualized randomized controlled feasibility trial. Participants were parents of 6–8 year old children. Intervention participants were invited to attend an eight week parenting program with each session lasting 2 hours. Children and parents wore an accelerometer for seven days and minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) were derived. Parents were also asked to report the average number of hours per day that both they and the target child spent watching TV. Measures were assessed at baseline (time 0) at the end of the intervention (week 8) and 2 months after the intervention had ended (week 16). Results: There were 75 participants who provided consent and were randomized but 27 participants withdrew post-randomization. Children in the intervention group engaged in 2.6 fewer minutes of weekday MVPA at Time 1 but engaged in 11 more minutes of weekend MVPA. At Time 1 the intervention parents engaged in 9 more minutes of weekday MVPA and 13 more minutes of weekend MVPA. The proportion of children in the intervention group watching ≥ 2 hours per day of TV on weekend days decreased after the intervention (time 0 = 76%, time 1 = 39%, time 2 = 50%), while the control group proportion increased slightly (79%, 86% and 87%). Parental weekday TV watching decreased in both groups. In post-study interviews many mothers reported problems associated with wearing the accelerometers. In terms of a future full-scale trial, a sample of between 80 and 340 families would be needed to detect a mean difference of 10-minutes of weekend MVPA. Conclusions: Teamplay is a promising parenting program in an under-researched area. The intervention was acceptable to parents, and all elements of the study protocol were successfully completed. Simple changes to the trial protocol could result in more complete data collection and study engagement