In brief: The educational background of postgrad students

Has the boom in postgraduate courses in the UK over recent years had a negative impact on intergenerational mobility? Research by Stephen Machin and Richard Murphy suggests that there is a small but significant imbalance in favour of undergraduates who have been privately educated.education, social mobility

The importance of psychological well-being in organisational settings: moving beyond the pleasure principle

In contrast to the emphasis on affective states as components of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), the Psychological Well-Being (PWB) approach considers the role of personal resources, such as mastery and efficacy beliefs, a sense of autonomy, positive relatedness with others, and self acceptance. This study of 679 high-school teachers was based on the Organisational Health Research Framework and compared the contribution of PWB, personality and organisational climate to the prediction of SWB and organisational well-being. PWB was identified as a significant predictor of SWB even after controlling for demographic characteristics, organisational climate and personality variables with 46% of the variance in PA and 47% of the variance in NA explained. In addition, PWB contributed uniquely to the prediction of school morale and school distress with the overall set of predictors accounting for 69% of the variance in school morale and 66% of the variance in school distress. Individual interventions which promote PWB components would appear to be a most important avenue by which to improve employee SWB, while organisational interventions that focus on improving the organisational climate should have greater impact on organisational well-bein

Estimating the Effect of Minimum Wages on Employment from the Distribution of Wages: A Critical View

In two papers, Meyer and Wise (1983a,b) present an ingenious method for estimating the effect of minimum wage rates on wages and employment using data based only on the observed cross-sectional distribution of wages. They, and others who have used this method, have generally found that the minimum wage causes substantial losses in employment. In this paper we evaluate the robustness of this technique. We argue that the estimates, at least for the UK, are very sensitive to the functional form assumed for the distribution of wages and to the assumption made about how far up the wage distribution the minimum wage has spillover effects.

British Unions in Decline: An Examination of the 1980s Fall in Trade Union Recognition

The authors analyze establishment-level data from the three Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys of 1980, 1984 and 1990 to document and explain the sharp decline in unionization that occurred in Britain over the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1990 the proportion of British establishments which recognised manual or non-manual trade unions for collective bargaining over pay and conditions fell by almost 20 percent (from 0.67 to 0.54). The evidence reported demonstrates the importance of the interaction between the labour market, the product market, employer behaviour and the legislative framework in determining union recognition status in new establishments. The sharp fall in trade union recognition appears to be largely driven by a failure to achieve recognition status in establishments set up in the 1980s. These results, when taken in conjunction with recent changes in the nature of employment in the British labour market, seem to paint a bleak picture for unions and there appears to be no reason why the decline in union activity should not continue into the 1990s.

Variation in Educational Outcomes and Policies Across Countries and of Schools within Countries

This study examines the variation in educational outcomes across and within countries using the TIMSS mathematics tests. It documents the wide cross-country variation in the level and dispersion of test scores. Countries with the highest test scores are those with the least inequality in scores, which suggests a "virtuous" equity-efficiency trade-off in improving educational outcomes. Analyzing the association of gender, immigrant status, and family background factors with scores, we find large cross-country differences in the relation between those factors and scores.Educational attainment, schools, inequality

The Effects of Minimum Wages on Employment: Theory and Evidence from the US

Recent work on the economic effects of minimum wages has stressed that the standard economic model, where increases in minimum wages depress employment, is not supported by the empirical findings in some labour markets. In this paper we present a theoretical framework which is general enough to allow minimum wages to have the conventional negative impact on employment, but which also allows for the possibility of a neutral or a positive effect. The model structure is based on labour market frictions which give employers some degree of monopsony power. The formulated model has a number of empirical implications which we go on to test using data on industry-based minimum wages set by the UK Wages Councils between 1975 and 1990. Some strong results emerge: minimum wages significantly compress the distribution of earnings and, contrary to conventional economic wisdom but in line with several recent studies, do not have a negative impact on employment. If anything, the relationship between minimum wages and employment is estimated to be positive.

The Changing Economic Advantage from Private School

Despite its relatively small size, the private school sector plays a prominent role in British society. This paper focuses on changing wage and education differentials between privately educated and state educated individuals in Britain. It reports evidence that the private/state school wage differential has risen significantly over time, despite the rising cost to sending children to private school. A significant factor underpinning this has been faster rising educational attainment for privately educated individuals. Despite these patterns of change, the proportion attending private school has not altered much, nor have the characteristics of those children (and their parents) attending private school. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the idea that the private school sector has been successful in transforming its ability to generate the academic outputs that are most in demand in the modern economy. Because of the increased earnings advantage, private school remains a good investment for parents who want to opt out, but it also contributes more to rising economic and social inequality.returns to education, private schools

The Changing Economic Advantage From Private School

Despite its relatively small size, the private school sector plays a prominent role in British society. This paper focuses on changing wage and education differentials between privately educated and state educated individuals in Britain. It reports evidence that the private/state school wage differential has risen significantly over time, despite the rising cost of sending children to private school. A significant factor underpinning this result has been faster rising educational attainment for privately educated individuals. Despite these patterns of change, the proportion attending private school has not altered much, nor have the characteristics of those children (and their parents) attending private school. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the idea that the private school sector has been successful in transforming its ability to generate the academic outputs that are most in demand in the modern economy. Because of the increased earnings advantage, private school remains a good investment for parents who want to opt out, but this increase has also contributed to rising wage inequality and falling social mobility.wage differentials, educational attainment, private schools

Competition for private and state school teachers

Private schools,state schools, independent schools, teachers labour markets

Research on the Intergenerational Links in the Every Child Matters Outcomes.Report to the Department of Children, Schools and Families

The Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda was introduced in the UK, as a policy aiming to improve child outcomes along five broad areas. The categories are Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution and Achieve Economic Wellbeing1. The objective therefore, is to move beyond the traditional focus on child academic outcomes, to improve the wellbeing of children in the UK. From a policy perspective, there is a need to understand the mechanism through which the wide range of child ECM outcomes form. This report evaluates the role of families in driving the ECM outcomes of their children. Specifically, we analyse the intergenerational transmission of ECM outcomes between parents and children. We take the approach of analysing correlations across generations in a wide set of outcomes - the broadest set of variables studied to date. Existing studies of intergenerational correlations across generations tend to focus on outcomes such as earnings, and consequently very little is known about how healthiness, safety and enjoyment of school are correlated across generations. We contribute towards this literature by extending the scope of child outcomes. This research was commissioned before the new UK Government took office on 11 May 2010. As a result the content may not reflect current Government policy and may make reference to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) which has now been replaced by the Department for Education (DfE). The views expressed in this report are those of the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education.Every Child Matters, ECM, education