This paper explores the school-to-work transition in the UK with the aim of achieving a richer understanding of individuals\\\' choices and activities in the ve years after�reaching school-leaving age. Through the technique of `optimal matching', we assess the�degree of similarity between...

Many politicians believe they can intervene in the economy to improve people’s lives.  But can they?  In a social experiment carried out in the United Kingdom, extensive in-work support was randomly assigned among 16,000 disadvantaged people.  We follow a sub-sample of 3,500 single parents...

We investigate young people's labour market transitions beyond compulsory schooling and, in particular, the dynamic effects of early experiences. We use a UK longitudinal survey to model transitions between four states: employment, unemployment, education and a residual category of those neither...

A recent experimental programme for unemployed welfare recipients in the UK found that temporary earnings supplements combined with post-employment services led to increased employment rates. This paper examines whether these overall impacts are due to employment entry or employment retention...

Data from a recently-completed experimental program for out-of-work welfare recipients in Texas are used to examine the effects of a time-limited financial incentive coupled with post-employment services on recipients’ rates of entering and leaving employment.  While there is strong evidence...

This paper studies the school to work transition in the UK with the aim of achieving a richer understanding of individuals’ trajectories in the five years after reaching school leaving age. By applying the technique of ‘optimal matching’ on data from 1991 to 2008, we group individuals’...

The debate about the economic impacts of migration has focused on the short-run impacts on labour markets, public service and public finances. These have taken centre stage in recent Government announcements and debates about social impacts, fuelled by perceptions of public opinion on migration....

Theory suggests that government should as far as possible smooth taxes and its recurrent consumption spending, which means that government debt should act as a shock absorber, and any planned adjustments in debt should be gradual. This suggests that operational targets for governments (e.g. for...

Research on employers’ discrimination is limited by the unlawfulness of such activity. As such, researchers have focused on the intention to hire, rather than hiring decisions and wage settlements. Instead, we rely on a virtual labour market, the UK Fantasy Football league where employers can...

Recent work in psychology and economics has investigated ways in which individuals experience their lives. This literature includes influences on individuals’ momentary happiness. We contribute to this literature using a new data source, Mappiness (www.mappiness.org.uk), which permits...