Modelling Curriculum Choice at A-level: Why is Business Studies More Popular than Economics?

This paper uses A-level Information System (ALIS) data to quantify the determinants of the choice between Economics and Business Studies at A-level. These subjects are often perceived as close curriculum options and possible substitutes in the UK. Subject choice is modelled using an underlying latent variable approach. On the basis of a series of counterfactual exercises an overall average grade differential, a measure of their comparative difficulty, is estimated to be 1.3 (old) UCAS points, equivalent to approximately two-thirds of a letter grade, in favour of Business Studies. The estimating equation suggests that a unit increase in the grade differential increases the probability of selecting Business Studies over Economics by approximately 12 percentage points. There is evidence that females are less likely to choose Economics over Business Studies and the more able students, in terms of their average GCSE score and mathematical ability, are more likely to select Economics. There is also some evidence of parental background characteristics and ethnicity exerting significant effects on the choice between these two subjects.

The Hazard of Being an English Football League Manager: Empirical Estimates from the 2002/3 Season

This paper uses data drawn from the English Football League to model hazard rates for club managers in the 2002/3 season. Nearly one-third of managers involuntarily exited employment status with their club in that season. We model the hazard on the basis of a spell at risk, rather than the individual, using a standard logistic model. The role of neglected heterogeneity is also examined using random and fixed effects logistic models within the discrete-time setting. League position at the start of the spell at risk is found to be the most important determinant of a manager’s exit. A variety of individual specific human capital covariates were found to be unimportant in determining the hazard and no role for unobservable heterogeneity as captured by random effects was detected.econometrics; sports

A comparison of A-level performance in economics and business studies: how much more difficult is economics?

This paper uses ALIS data to compare academic performance in two subjects often viewed as relatively close substitutes for one another at A-level. The important role of GCSE achievement is confirmed for both subjects. There is evidence of strong gender effects and variation in outcomes across Examination Boards. A counterfactual exercise suggests that if the sample of Business Studies candidates had studied Economics nearly 40% of those who obtained a grade C or better in the former subject would not have done so in the latter. The opposite exercise uggests that 12% more Economics candidates would have achieved a grade C or better if they had taken Business Studies. In order to render a Business Studies A-level grade comparable to an Economics one in terms of relative difficulty, we estimate that a downward adjustment of 1.5 UCAS points should be applied to the former subject. This adjustment is lower than that suggested by correction factors based on conventional subject pair analysis for these two subjects

Modelling Curriculum Choice at A-level: Why is Business Studies more popular than Economics?

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The Gender Wage Gap Among University Vice Chancellors in the UK

The gender wage gap has closed gradually in the United Kingdom, as in other countries, but convergence is slower among top earners. Using linked employer-employee data over two decades we examine the gap among university Vice Chancellors who are among the most highly paid employees in the UK. Traditionally dominated by men the occupation has experienced a recent influx of women. The substantial gender wage gap of 12 log points in the first decade of the 21st Century closed markedly during the second decade, becoming statistically non-significant in later years. The closure in the gap is largely accounted for by change in the attributes of male and female VCs and the universities they lead - in particular, the financial performance of universities employing female VCs. The unexplained component of the gap is small and explains none of the convergence in the gap. A “new starter” wage penalty women faced in the early 2000s disappeared. However, women continued to receive a lower wage when replacing an outgoing male Vice Chancellor, whereas no differential was apparent between incoming male Vice Chancellors and the women they replaced

On the Labour Market Progress of Polish Accession Workers in South-East England: Labour market progress of Polish accession workers

The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in May 2004 produced a very significant wave of immigration to the United Kingdom that is likely to continue to impact its labour market in forthcoming years. Polish migrants were by far the largest cohort of the new entrants. This paper complements previous work that has begun to establish the characteristics and labour market performance of migrants from the new member states who have entered the United Kingdom. This paper uses a unique micro‐level data base to investigate the labour market evolution of Polish migrants in the UK labour market. We find that in the first UK job returns to human capital were negligible. However, for the current job an extra year of education increases the weekly gross wage by 3.2 per cent. There is evidence of a gender differential in pay in both jobs and that older workers are paid more than their younger counterparts but this effect becomes insignificant in the current job. We find that hours worked is a significant factor in wage determination. However, the influence of hours worked on wages declined by approximately 38 per cent between the first and current job. Results from multinomial logit models suggest that over‐time there is some “match” between the occupational groupings that these workers were attached to in Poland and the United Kingdom. We also find evidence that the use of employment agencies by some of these workers increases the likelihood of employment in skilled manual and non‐manual occupations. Workers who have had supervisory responsibility in the United Kingdom are more likely to be in professional or intermediate occupations

Income Dynamics and Stability in the Transition Process. General Reflections Applied to the Czech Republic

Income distribution is a widely neglected subject in applied macroeconomics. This paper looks at the current state of art, which can be summarised as the “Transatlantic Consensus”explaining inequality through a partial analysis approach with changes on the labour market at its core. The potential interrelationship between inequality and growth is particularly important for transition countries, because according to common knowledge in this case the change of regime went along with rising inequality and declining income in the initial phase. The Czech case - the Czech Republic being the most egalitarian country among the former socialist economies - is even more interesting, because here income distribution remained relatively stable before and throughout the transition period. This result is illustrated by Lorenz curves. The analysis of so-far unpublished empirical data indicates that there is no need for active distribution policy in the Czech Republic. This result might not hold for other transition countries, which find themselves at the initial part of the Kuznets curve, but on a lower level of income