373 research outputs found
The impact of computer use, computer skills and computer use intensity: evidence from WERS 2004
Computers and ICT have changed the way we live and work. The latest WERS 2004 provides a snapshot of how using ICT at the workplace has changed our working lives. Various studies have suggested that the use of a computer at work boosted earnings by as much as 20%. Others suggest this reported impact is due to unobserved heterogeneity. Using excellent data from the WERS employer-employee matched data we compare OLS estimates with those from estimations which include controls for establishments, industrial sectors and occupations and use control function, treatment effects models and Instrumental Variable estimation. We show that the results of OLS estimation grossly overestimate the return to computer use but that including occupation controls, reduces the return to between 3-10%. We explore the return on different IT skills and also find a return to the intensity of computer use as measured by the number of tasks a computer is used for
Lone Parents Work Focused Interviews/New Deal for Lone Parents: combined evaluation and further net impacts
Causal effects of an absent crowd on performances and refereeing decisions during Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has induced worldwide natural experiments on the effects of crowds. We exploit one of these experiments that took place over several countries in almost identical settings: professional football matches played behind closed doors within the 2019/20 league seasons. We find large and statistically significant effects on the number of yellow cards issued by referees. Without a crowd, fewer cards were awarded to the away teams, reducing home advantage. These results have implications for the influence of social pressure and crowds on the neutrality of decisions
Revisiting the Benefits of Higher Education
The economic returns of higher education (HE) in terms of enhanced earnings are
well established. The wider set of ānon-economic benefitsā in the areas of health,
generic skills and citizenship are less widely recognised. In an earlier report, we
presented preliminary findings on the wider benefits, drawing on data collected at age
33 from the National Child Development Study (based on a cohort born in 1958). This
report updates the earlier conclusions through new findings from a more extensive
analysis involving both the 1958 cohort and the more recent 1970 British Cohort
Study cohort (based on a cohort born in 1970). The current analysis incorporates more
recent data collected in both cohorts in 2000 and at an older age (1958 cohort).
We report findings in five major areas. First, we examine the mobility of graduates.
To what extent do some parts of the country gain and lose graduates and graduate
types of occupation at the expense of others? We then report findings on the āmarginal
returnsā to higher education in four domains of life: health, labour market, citizenship
and values, and parenting
Overeducation across British regions
This paper analyses levels of over-education and wage returns to education for males across
eleven regions of the UK using Labour Force Survey data. Significant differences are found
in the probability of being over-educated across regions; also, differences are found in the
return to the ācorrectā level of education in each region, in each case associated with
flexibility of movement between and into particular regions, which determines the ease of job
matching. Furthermore, evidence is found that, after controlling for the level of education
acquired, there exists a premium to the ācorrectā level of education, which varies across UK
regions
Wage returns to university disciplines in Greece: are Greek Higher Education degrees Trojan Horses?
This paper examines the wage returns to qualifications and academic disciplines in the Greek labour market. Exploring wage responsiveness across various degree subjects in Greece is interesting, as it is characterised by high levels of graduate unemployment, which vary considerably by field of study, and relatively low levels of wage flexibility. Using micro-data from recently available waves (2002-2003) of the Greek Labour Force Survey (LFS), the returns to academic disciplines are estimated by gender and public/private sector. Quantile regressions and cohort interactions are also used to capture the heterogeneity in wage returns across the various disciplines. The results show considerable variation in wage premiums across the fields of study, with lower returns for those that have a marginal role to play in an economy with a rising services/shrinking public sector. Educational reforms that pay closer attention to the future prospects of university disciplines are advocated
Barriers for highly qualified A8 immigrants in the UK labour market
The number of migrants arriving in the UK from the EU accession countries has been higher than projected. The evidence indicates that they have been over-represented in low-paid and low-skilled jobs. This is arguably transitory and there should be good prospects of upward mobility. Over-qualification among A8 migrants, measured using the Annual Population Survey data, is examined in this article. The findings show that A8 migrants have been subject to migration penalties at the high end of the UK labour market. There are persistent labour market disadvantages for A8 migrants in the UK and their over-qualification may be a long-term concern
Centralized red muscle in Odontaspis ferox and the prevalence of regional endothermy in sharks
The order Lamniformes contains charismatic species such as the white shark Carcharodon carcharias and extinct megatooth shark Otodus megalodon, and is of particular interest given their influence on marine ecosystems, and because some members exhibit regional endothermy. However, there remains significant debate surrounding the prevalence and evolutionary origin of regional endothermy in the order, and therefore the development of phenomena such as gigantism and filter-feeding in sharks generally. Here we show a basal lamniform shark, the smalltooth sand tiger shark Odontaspis ferox, has centralized skeletal red muscle and a thick compact-walled ventricle; anatomical features generally consistent with regionally endothermy. This result, together with the recent discovery of probable red muscle endothermy in filter feeding basking sharks Cetorhinus maximus, suggests that this thermophysiology is more prevalent in the Lamniformes than previously thought, which in turn has implications for understanding the evolution of regional endothermy, gigantism, and extinction risk of warm-bodied shark species both past and present
The impact of research on policy: a case of qualifications reform
The relationship between research and policymaking has been discussed repeatedly. However, the debate tends to be in general, abstract terms or from a macro-economic perspective with any examples described in a fairly cursory way. Despite the inherent complexity of the research-policy interface, analyses tend to homogenize āresearchā and āpolicyā as coherent entities with discussions often focusing on products (research and policies) rather than on the relationships between producers (researchers and policy makers). Here we take one piece of research on qualifications that has influenced policy rhetoric over the last 5 years. We trace the career of the research from its production in the late 1990s in order to understand the conditions of its dormancy, reemergence and use over the ensuing years. The paper serves to document the case, which is important in its own right, but also proposes a typology of ways in which research gets adopted and adapted into policy
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