Childhood disadvantage and intergenerational transmissions of economic status

Report background: This report summarises presentations and discussion at a workshop on ‘Persistent Poverty and Lifetime Inequality’ organised by HM Treasury and chaired by John Hills, Director of the ESRC Resarch Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics. It took place on 17 and 18 November 1998. The Treasury decided to hold this workshop to encourage debate and extend understanding of the causes of persistent poverty and inequality of opportunity, drawing on the large amount of new research using panel datasets. These new datasets make it possible to move from a static analysis of poverty and inequality to a dynamic focus. Looking at the dynamics of poverty and inequality of opportunity enables us to pinpoint the processes and events which lead people to be at greater risk of low income and poorer life chances. These data provide a much firmer underpinning for policies which aim to tackle these problems at source

Factors of convergence and divergence in union membership

This paper considers to what extent union decline in Britain has been characterised by convergence or divergence in union membership rates for people with different personal and job characteristics. It compares data on individual union membership in 1975, from a period when union membership was high and growing, to data in 2001 data when it is low and has been falling for over twenty years. Some factors of both convergence and divergence are identified. The clearest individual characteristic of convergence is gender. In 1975 there was a big male-female gap in union membership, whilst by 2001 one cannot reject the hypothesis that union membership rates were equal for men and women. The clearest case of divergence is age where the 1975-2001 period sees a widening of the age gap in union membership status. Other factors of convergence are the full- time/part-time status of jobs, ethnicity and workplace size. Other factors of divergence are industry and educational qualifications. Some other factors (like region) are neutral in that their relationship with union membership remains stable through time. Identification of these factors of convergence and divergence should be useful to many parties, including industrial relations scholars and union organisers. Finally, the fact that the magnitude of the relationships between union membership and a number of its determinants have shifted through time illustrates that one should be careful if one wishes to talk about empirical regularities in who is more or less likely to become a trade union member

Evaluating a fatigue management training program for coach drivers

[Abstract]: A nonprescriptive fatigue management training program was developed that aimed at identifying specific factors contributing to coach driver fatigue and assisting coach drivers to develop more effective coping strategies to manage difficult or stressful work situations. The training program incorporated a strategy of presenting realistic, job related situations and multiple responses to drivers and asking them to indicate the effectiveness of each response in dealing with that situation. The advantage of using this methodology was that drivers were presented with stimulus material that was directly related to their work tasks, that is, had a high level of psychological fidelity. The evaluation of the training indicated that drivers who perceived the situational exercises as most realistic reported better training outcomes. Overall, the drivers reported positive reactions to the training, high levels of posttraining self efficacy, and strong level of transfer intentions

Predicting job satisfaction and depression at work: how important are work-related factors?

This study compared the degree to which work characteristics added to the prediction of two outcomes (job satisfaction and depression) in a sample of employed Australians after controlling for measures of personality and affectivity (both positive and negative). The main purpose was to examine the unique contribution of various work characteristics to the prediction of job satisfaction and depression. A total of 280 employed participants completed the online survey that assessed the four work characteristics (demands, control, supervisor support and co-worker support), personality (Extraversion and Neuroticism),both positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), job satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Several hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. The results of the analyses predicting job satisfaction showed that the four work characteristics explained a small but significant proportion of job satisfaction ( R2 = .04, p > .001) after controlling for PA and NA at step 1 (R2 = .60, p > .001) and personality variables at step 2 ( R2 = .00, ns). Control and co-worker support were significant unique predictors of job satisfaction. The results of the analyses predicting depression showed that the four work characteristics explained a nonsignificant proportion of depression ( R2 = .01, ns) after controlling for PA and NA at step 1 (R2 = .29, p > .001) and personality variables at step 2 ( R2 = .21, p > .001). These results are important in that levels of job satisfaction are mainly explained by affect (PA and NA) with a weak contribution from level of job control and co-worker support but no unique contribution from personality variables. When predicting the presence of depressive symptoms, the personality variables contributed additional variance after controlling for PA and NA but there were no unique contributions from the work characteristics. This study compared the degree to which work characteristics added to the prediction of two outcomes(job satisfaction and depression) in a sample of employed Australians after controlling for measures of personality and affectivity (both positive and negative). The main purpose was to examine the unique contribution of various work characteristics to the prediction of job satisfaction and depression. A total of 280 employed participants completed the online survey that assessed the four work characteristics (demands, control, supervisor support and co-worker support), personality (Extraversion and Neuroticism), both positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), job satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Several hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. The results of the analyses predicting job satisfaction showed that the four work characteristics explained a small but significant proportion of job satisfaction ( R2 = .04, p > .001) after controlling for PA and NA at step 1 (R2 = .60, p > .001) and personality variables at step 2 ( R2 = .00, ns). Control and co-worker support were significant unique predictors of job satisfaction. The results of the analyses predicting depression showed that the four work characteristics explained a nonsignificant proportion of depression ( R2 = .01, ns) after controlling for PA and NA at step 1 (R2 = .29, p > .001) and personality variables at step 2 ( R2 = .21, p > .001). These results are important in that levels of job satisfaction are mainly explained by affect (PA and NA) with a weak contribution from level of job control and co-worker support but no unique contribution from personality variables. When predicting the presence of depressive symptoms, the personality variables contributed additional variance after controlling for PA and NA but there were no unique contributions from the work characteristics. The focus of work-related interventions designed to improve satisfaction or alleviate depression should give priority to the determinants of PA and NA which have been found to include several workplace characteristics (work demands, control, supervisor support and co-worker support), personality traits, and personal resources such as mastery and efficacy beliefs, a sense of autonomy, positive relatedness with others, and self acceptanc

Crime and police resources: the street crime initiative

In this paper we look at links between police resources and crime in a different way to the existing economics of crime work. To do so we focus on a policy intervention - the Street Crime Initiative - that was introduced in England and Wales in 2002. This allocated additional resources to some police force areas to combat street crime, whereas other forces did not receive any additional funding. Estimates derived from several empirical strategies show that robberies did fall significantly in SCI police forces relative to non-SCI forces after the initiative was introduced. Moreover, the policy seems to have been a cost effective one. There is some heterogeneity in this positive net social benefit across different SCI police forces, suggesting that some police forces may have made better use of the extra resources than others. Overall, we reach the conclusion that increased police resources do in fact lead to lower crime, at least in the context of the SCI programme we study

Union Decline in Britain

In this paper I consider the rapid decline in the unionization rate that has occurred in Britain since the late 1970s. An establishment based analysis reports that the overwhelming factor in explaining falling unionization was a failure to organise the new sorts of establishments that were set up in the last twenty years or so. Patterns showing low rates of union recognition and density in new establishments set up in the 1980s and 1990s are seen to be very similar for new workplaces in both decades, reflecting that the developments since 1990 represent a continuation of the pattern revealed in earlier work for the 1980-90 period. The sharpest falls in unionization occurred in private manufacturing establishments set up post-1980, with significant falls also occurring, but from a lower initial level, in private sector services. In the public sector there is no establishment age based decline in recognition. Finally, there is some evidence that age of workplace, rather than age of worker, is the critical age based factor. This seems to be the case as the negative association between unionization and the post-1980 set up of the establishment is found to hold for workers of all ages.Union recognition, union density, establishment age

In brief: Economic Inequality in the UK

Stephen Machin, a member of the National Equality Panel, summarises its recent report

Factors of Convergence and Divergence in Union Membership

This paper considers to what extent union decline in Britain has been characterised by convergence or divergence in union membership rates for people with different personal and job characteristics. It compares data on individual union membership in 1975, from a period when union membership was high and growing, to data in 2001 data when it is low and has been falling for over twenty years. Some factors of both convergence and divergence are identified. The clearest individual characteristic of convergence is gender. In 1975 there was a big male-female gap in union membership, whilst by 2001 one cannot reject the hypothesis that union membership rates were equal for men and women. The clearest case of divergence is age where the 1975-2001 period sees a widening of the age gap in union membership status. Other factors of convergence are the full- time/part-time status of jobs, ethnicity and workplace size. Other factors of divergence are industry and educational qualifications. Some other factors (like region) are neutral in that their relationship with union membership remains stable through time. Identification of these factors of convergence and divergence should be useful to many parties, including industrial relations scholars and union organisers. Finally, the fact that the magnitude of the relationships between union membership and a number of its determinants have shifted through time illustrates that one should be careful if one wishes to talk about empirical regularities in who is more or less likely to become a trade union member.

Spatial crime patterns and the introduction of the UK minimum wage

In this paper we consider the connection between crime and the labour market in a different way to existing work. We focus on a situation where the introduction of a minimum wage floor to a labour market previously unregulated by minimum wage legislation provided substantial pay increases for low paid workers. From a theoretical perspective we argue that this wage boost has the potential to alter peoples’ incentives to participate in crime. We formulate empirical tests, based upon area-level data in England and Wales, which look at what happened to crime rates before and after the introduction of the national minimum wage to the UK labour market in April 1999. Comparing police force area-level crime rates before and after the minimum wage introduction produces evidence in line with the notion that changing economic incentives for low wage workers can influence crime

Academy schools under Labour combated disadvantage and increased pupil achievement: the coalition’s new policy may exacerbate existing inequalities

With the recent accusation that Michael Gove has been sending ‘mixed messages’ over academy schools, it is clear that the policy is still very controversial. Stephen Machin and James Vernoit take a step back and compare the academy schools created by Labour with the new ‘coalition academies’ that have either opened this autumn or applied for academy status since May, and finds the latter are likely to reinforce advantage and exacerbate existing inequalitie