Welsh Small Area Estimates of Income Deprivation

This paper describes the results of applying a spatial microsimulation approach to the estimation of small area (LSOA) income deprivation for Wales for 2005 using the Census 2001 and the FRS 2003/4 and 2004/5. The indicators used are the proportion of households in each LSOA whose equivalised household income was below 60% of the Welsh median equivalised household income in the appropriate year. The adjusted OECD scale was used to calculate equivalised income before (BHC) and after (AHC) housing costs and the results for these two variants are presented together with estimates of the % of children who are living in ‘poor’ households in each LSOA

Home OnLine Survey Call Record Documentation (v2.2)

This paper describes the call records collected as part of the Home OnLine Household Panel study conducted by the University of Essex in collaboration with and funded by BT plc in 1997-2000. The paper is a ‘living’ document and will be updated as and when further details become available

Creating Small Area Income Deprivation Estimates For Northern Ireland: Spatial Microsimulation Modelling

This paper describes results from a preliminary investigation of the value of a spatial microsimulation technique in the estimation, for each SOA in Northern Ireland, of the incidence of income poverty as measured by the proportion of households whose income is below 60% of the UK median household income (%HBAI). In this paper we describe the spatial microsimulation approach and then present small area (SOA) estimates of median household income validated against the equivalent measure NIMDM 2005 income domain score, and the Experian 2005 median income estimates. We then turn to the %HBAI estimates and describe firstly results based on unequivalised gross income for 2004/5 using the FRS 2004/5 and the UK Census 2001. We then discuss results equivalised net household income before housing costs for 2003/5 using the UK Census 2001 and a pooled 2003/4 and 2004/5 FRS dataset. We discuss the results of validation against the source FRS and against the NIMDM income domain score. The paper concludes with a summary of the findings and recommendations for further work

The value of mixed-method longitudinal panel studies in ict research

This paper uses a unique British three-wave longitudinal dataset to examine the rates of transitions into and out of ‘ICT poverty’ defined as having Internet access in the household and/or having a mobile phone. This serves three purposes: it shows that many are still ‘passing by’ ICT ownership, that ‘gaining ICT’ access is not a one-way street – many just pass through; and that the rates of dropping out differ for different ICTs and for different groups of people. This has implications for both commercial and public policy strategy. It also shows the value of longitudinal approaches to data collection without which this kind of analysis would be impossible

Forced labour and migration to the UK

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Predicting the socio-technical future (and other myths)

A snooker ball model implies that simple, linear and predictable social change follows from the introduction of new technologies. Unfortunately technology does not have and has never had simple linear predictable social impacts. In this chapter we show that in most measurable ways, the pervasiveness of modern information and communication technologies has had little discernable ?impact? on most human behaviours of sociological significance. Historians of technology remind us that human society co-evolves with the technology it invents and that the eventual social and economic uses of a technology often turn out to be far removed from those originally envisioned. Rather than using the snooker ball model to attempt to predict future ICT usage and revenue models that are inevitably wrong, we suggest that truly participatory, grounded innovation, open systems and adaptive revenue models can lead us to a more effective, flexible and responsive innovation process

The impact of local ICT initiatives on social capital and quality of life

This paper reviews the evidence for the effects of local ICT initiatives (‘community networks’) on neighbourhood social capital and quality of life and has been developed from the public SOCQUIT D11 report (Anderson et al, 2006)

Advanced Ceramic Materials and Processes for Three-Dimensional Printing (3DP)

The University of Washington and ExOne, Inc. are collaborating in the development of advanced ceramic materials and processes for three-dimensional printing (3DP). The focus of the research to be presented is work funded by the National Science Foundation to develop a biocompatible alumina-based system for medical and dental applications. Materials design, characterization, and processing considerations will be discussed.Mechanical Engineerin

Estimating the small area effects of austerity measures in the UK

Governments across Europe are starting to implement a range of cost-cutting and income generating programmes in order to re-balance their fiscal budgets following substantial investments in stabilising domestic financial institutions in 2008 and 2009. One method of doing this has been to increase tax rates such as the increase in VAT in the UK from 17.5% to 20% from January 1st 2011. In this paper we explore the different spatial impact of this VAT rise on household expenditure on public and private transport and communication technology from 2006 to 2016. We do this by combining three elements: an agent-based dynamic population microsimulation model that produces projected snapshots of the UK population in 2006, 2011 and 2016; an expenditure system model based on the familiar Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System approach; and synthetic small area census tables produced by projecting historical UK census data. Taken together these elements provide a toolkit for assessing the potential spatial impact of rising taxes or prices (or both) and we use them to compare small area projections of household expenditure under two scenarios. The first is a 'no intervention' scenario where prices and income align to UK government inflation forecasts and the second is a one-off non-reversed 2.5% increase in VAT on goods and services rated at 17.5% on 1st January 2011. We present results for different areas (rural vs urban/deprived vs affluent) and for different income groups within them and discuss the potential implications for the telecommunications industry and for the usage of public and private transport

Categories, Concepts and Units : Representing energy demand in and through time

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