HuCIAW Publications

The role of parenthood on the gender gap among top earners

This research uses Norwegian registry data to study the effect of parenthood on the careers of high-achieving women. It finds the child earnings penalty is substantially larger for mothers with an MBA or law degree than for mothers with a STEM or medical degree. In recent decades women have outnumbered men in higher education and … Read more

Children’s socio-emotional skills: Is there a quantity–quality trade-off?

Although it is widely acknowledged that non-cognitive skills matter for adult outcomes, little is known about the role played by family environment in the formation of these skills. We use a longitudinal survey of children born in the UK in 2000–2001, the Millennium Cohort Study by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, to estimate the effect … Read more

Just a phase? Mapping the transition of behavioural problems from childhood to adolescence

Purpose Young people change substantially between childhood and adolescence. Yet, the current description of behavioural problems does not incorporate any reference to the developmental context. In the current analysis, we aimed to identify common transitions of behavioural problems between childhood and adolescence. Method We followed 6744 individuals over 6 years as they transitioned from childhood (age … Read more

Is improving access to university enough? Socio-economic gaps in the earnings of English graduates

Much research and policy attention has been on socio-economic gaps in participation at university, but less attention has been paid to socio-economic gaps in graduates’ earnings. This paper addresses this shortfall using tax and student loan administrative data to investigate the variation in earnings of English graduates by socio-economic background. We find that graduates from … Read more

The role of local labour market conditions and pupil attainment on post-compulsory schooling decisions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of local labour market conditions and pupil educational attainment as primary determinants of the post-compulsory schooling decision. Design/methodology/approach – Through the specification of a nested logit model, the restrictive independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) assumption inherent in the multinomial logit (MNL) model is … Read more

School choice in England: Evidence from national administrative data

We study school choice in England using a new dataset containing the choices of all parents seeking a school place in state secondary schools. We provide new empirical evidence to inform how the school choice market functions, including the number of choices made, whether the nearest school is the first choice and the probability of … Read more

Income Inequality and Mortality: A Norwegian Perspective

This paper uses Norwegian register data to examine the story behind income growth and people living longer in Norway over the last 70 years at both a municipal and individual level. It finds that the large gap in infant deaths between poorer and richer parts of the country largely closed in the late 1960s. However … Read more

Wages, experience, and training of women over the life cycle

This paper finds that on-the-job training can help mitigate some of the negative career effects of having children, especially for women who left education at the end of high school. The researchers used data from 18 waves of the British Household Panel Survey between 1991 and 2008, which contains information on the employment, education, training … Read more

Competitive schools and the gender gap in the choice of field of study

In most developed countries, students have to choose a major field of study during high school. This is an important decision because it largely determines subsequent educational and occupational choices. Using French data, this paper reveals that enrollment at a more selective high school, with higher-achieving peers, has no impact on boys, but a strong … Read more

The gender pay gap in the UK: children and experience in work

This paper documents the evolution of the gender pay gap in the UK over the past three decades and its association with fertility, examining the role of men’s and women’s career patterns and how they change with the arrival of a first child. The researchers find that the different working experiences of men and women, … Read more