A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Early Childhood Intervention: Evidence from a Randomised Evaluation of a Parenting Programme

A number of researchers and policy makers have recently argued that the most effective way of dealing with long-run disadvantage and the intergenerational transmission of poverty is through early childhood intervention and in particular policies aimed at supporting the family in early childhood development. In this paper we carry out a randomised evaluation of one such programme aimed at improving the skills and parenting strategies of parents, particularly those who find their child's behaviour difficult or challenging. Our evaluation shows that the treatment significantly reduced behavioural problems in young children when measured 6 months after the intervention. Furthermore our detailed cost analysis, combined with a consideration of the potential long-run benefits associated with the programme, suggest that the long-run rate of return to society from this programme is likely to be relatively high.early intervention, parenting programme, randomised trial

A Statistical Analysis of 10-pin Bowling Scores and an Examination of the Fairness of Alternative Handicapping Systems

Using data on approximately 1240 games of bowling we examine the statistical properties of 10-pin bowling scores. We find evidence that that the distribution of bowling scores is approximately log-normally distributed with a common variance across players. This allows us to consider the effectiveness of alternative handicapping systems in allowing less skilled bowlers to compete against more skilled opponents. We show that the current system mitigates against bowlers of low skill and propose a new system which we show works well in equalising the playing field across all match-ups.

Efficient Probit Estimation with Partially Missing Covariates

A common approach to dealing with missing data is to estimate the model on the common subset of data, by necessity throwing away potentially useful data. We derive a new probit type estimator for models with missing covariate data where the dependent variable is binary. For the benchmark case of conditional multinormality we show that our estimator is efficient and provide exact formulae for its asymptotic variance. Simulation results show that our estimator outperforms popular alternatives and is robust to departures from the benchmark case. We illustrate our estimator by examining the portfolio allocation decision of Italian households.missing data, probit model, portfolio allocation, risk aversion

Intergenerational Mobility in Britain: Evidence from unemployment patterns

Several papers have examined the intergenerational transmission of well being by looking at the relationship between parents' and children's income. However, by concentrating on those who are working these studies exclude some of the very poorest in society, the long-term unemployed. In this paper we extend the empirical work on intergenerational welfare in the U.K by looking at the links between fathers' and sons' unemployment histories. Using an approach which takes account of both incidence and intensity of son's unemployment we provide further evidence showing that parental background is an important determinant of a child's future welfare. A son whose father was unemployed 20 years earlier is almost twice as likely to be unemployed as a son whose father was not unemployed. Furthermore this dependency remains significant after controlling for a range of sons characteristics including education, ability and family composition.wealth; unemployment

The Long-Run Effects of Unemployment Monitoring and Work-Search Programs: Some Experimental Evidence from the U.K.

In this paper we examine the long-term effects of the Restart unemployment program introduced in the U.K. in 1987. The program was aimed at the long-term unemployed and involved a combination of tighter monitoring of benefit eligibility rules and increased job search assistance. We compare employment behaviour over a five-year period for members of a treatment group who participated in the scheme with those of a randomly chosen control group for whom participation was delayed. We find that those who participated in Restart had significantly shorter unemployment durations than those excluded from the program. However, our results also show that the long-run effect of postponing participation in the scheme differs by gender. While there is little evidence of a long-term benefit for women in our sample, the unemployment rate among males in the treatment group was six percentage points lower than that for males in the control group five years after the initial experiment.unemployment

Evaluating the Impact of a National Minimum Wage: Evidence from a New Survey of Firms

In April 2000 the Irish government introduced a national minimum wage of £4.40 an hour. This paper uses data from a specially designed panel survey of firms to estimate the labour market effects of this change. Initial results show that employment growth among firms with low wage workers prior to the legislation was not significantly different to that for firms not affected by the legislation. However, this measure of the minimum wage bite is likely to overestimate the number of firms affected by the legislation. When we use a more refined measure of the minimum wage bite, which takes account of general wage growth in the economy we find the minimum wage may have had a statistically significantly negative effect on employment for the small number of firms most severely affected by the legislation.

Intergenerational Mobility in Britain: Evidence from Unemployment Patterns

In this paper we examine the extent to which the experience of unemployment increases the likelihood of future unemployment. Many studies have examined this issue from an individual perspective. These include studies focusing directly on the work disincentives inherent in the welfare system (Atkinson and Mogensen, 1993) and reduced form studies examining duration dependence within unemployment spells.1 In this paper we examine dependency on unemployment by focusing on the family dynasty as the unit of analysis rather than the individual. In particular we ask: to what extent does a father’s participation in unemployment affect the likelihood that his son will subsequently become unemployed

An Empirical Note on the Relationship between Unemployment and Risk-Aversion

In this paper we use a direct measure of individual risk-aversion to examine the relationship between risk-aversion and unemployment. Contrary to what the simple search model predicts, we observe that more risk-averse individuals are more likely to be unemployed. We present extensions of the search model that can reconcile the theory with the relationships observed in the data.Unemployment,job-search,risk-aversion

Gender Differences in the Changing Labor Market The Role of Legislation and Inequality in Changing the Wage Gap for Qualified Workers in the United Kingdom

We use detailed cohort data from three surveys of graduates to examine two explanations for the large decline in the male-female wage gap that occurred in the United Kingdom during the early 1970s. The first attributes the fall to gender-specific factors, most notably the introduction of antidiscrimination legislation. The second explanation argues that these changes were largely in respon.'ie to changes in the wage structure and in particular to the introduction of income policies. Our findings show that for U.K. graduates, all the change in relative wages that occurred in this period can be accounted for by gender-specific forces