This research looks at how unemployment affects the risk of separation for heterosexual couples living together in Germany and the UK. The findings show that the annual separation rate almost doubles after an unemployment spell, increasing from 0.9% to 1.6% per year. The picture was the same whether it was the man or the woman … Read more
The effect of unemployment on couples separating in Germany and the UK
Parenting Behaviours and Early Child Development in Europe
Social inequality related to children’s development starts early in life. Parenting behaviour as an explanatory factor has important effects on very young children’s verbal and behavior social skills, and on later school achievements.
Formation of Children’s Cognitive and Socio- Emotional Skills: Is All Parental Time Equal?
This paper asks how time spent with one or both parents can affect children’s social, emotional and verbal skills. It finds the effect of doing educational activities with the father is smaller than that of time spent with the mother or with both parents together for children’s verbal and socio-emotional skills. The research uses data … Read more
The association between mother’s education level and early child language skills; findings from three European cohort studies
The development of language skills during the early years of a child’s life are vital for school readiness, educational attainment, and later life outcomes. The socio-economic background of parents, as measured by occupation, income, and level of education, have been found to significantly affect child language skills and the differences we see between children.
The Pros and Cons of Combining Birth Cohort Data
This short SEED working paper is designed to highlight the value of and the pitfalls in combining and comparing data across large scale representative population cohorts. It was carried out as part of the Norface DIAL initiative by the SEED project (Social InEquality and its Effects on child Development: A study of birth cohorts in the UK, … Read more
Father’s occupation, children’s vocabulary, and whether changing occupation creates social mobility in the UK
In the UK the issue of social mobility, the link between a person’s life outcomes and that of their parents, has been of concern since the 1970s. Despite many interventions and policy initiatives this link has become “entrenched” with those who are born into low-income families taking on average 5 generations to reach the mean … Read more
The Intergenerational Elasticity of Earnings: Exploring the Mechanisms
Rich parents have rich children. Why is that? This paper evaluates several different potential channels that might explain the persistence in earnings between parents and children. In particular, the researchers study the relative importance of differences in years of schooling, cognitive skills, parental investments, and family background. To do so, they use a cohort born … Read more
The association of maternal education on children’s language skills and its link to social inequality, descriptive analysis from three European cohort studies
Social inequality is a persistent global issue which many countries, governments, and policymakers aim to address. The development of language and communication skills during the early years of a child’s life are vital for school readiness, educational success, and later life outcomes. As part of a collaborative research project we sought to bring together data … Read more
Workplace Contact and Support for Anti-Immigration Parties
This paper asks whether support for anti-immigration political parties increases or decreases when native-born voters work alongside migrants. It finds that working together significantly reduces opposition to immigration and this leads to lower support for those parties. The researchers used detailed data from three million people in almost 6,000 electoral precincts across Sweden. All of … Read more
Economic Distress and Support for Radical Right Parties—Evidence From Sweden
This paper investigates whether there are any links between being made unemployed and increasing support for radical right-wing political parties. The research uses Swedish election data to show that for every layoff notice among low-skilled native-born workers, support for the country’s radical right party the Sweden Democrats increases by, on average, 0.17 to 0.45 votes. … Read more