Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of good management for firm performance. Here, we focus on management in not-for-profits (NFPs). We present a model predicting that management quality will be lower in NFPs compared to for-profits (FPs), but that outputs may not be worse if...

Evidence suggests that individuals fail to process all relevant attributes when making decisions. Recent literature has mainly focused on shrouded attributes. Here we present a simple model where agents rationally choose not to process attributes even when they are not shrouded, and we...

Earlier single-country studies found a higher level of intrinsic motivation among public sector workers, compared to the private sector. Using data from the World Values Survey, covering 51 countries, we find a tendency for public sector workers to be more intrinsically motivated, but this is...

This paper presents evidence on the fertility effect of welfare from a set of reforms that took place in the UK in 1999 and that substantially increased support for poorer families with children. The reforms, including the introduction of the Working Families Tax Credit and an increase in...

This paper uses data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to shed further light on the fall in consumption at retirement (the “retirement-consumption puzzle”). Comparing food spending of men retiring involuntarily early (through ill health or redundancy) with spending of men who...

Against a background of falling and low fertility, this paper presents an analysis of trends in fertility in the UK across cohorts born between 1935 and 1975. The decline in fertility is shown to have two distinct phases – first, a fall in third and higher-order births (affecting cohorts born...

The last thirty years saw dramatic increases in the proportion of children living in lone parent households. In 1997 the incoming Labour government initiated a series of policy reforms aimed at reducing this high level of child poverty. A key element of their strategy was a move towards...

Like other OECD countries, the UK experienced more than two decades of declining labour market activity among older men in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. A number of measures to reverse this trend that are currently under discussion, or have already been introduced, include, an increase in...

This paper presents evidence on the persistency of contributions to individual pensions, including an analysis of micro-data from the British Household Panel Survey. It finds variation in persistency rates by gender, earnings and household income. Changes in income and consumption needs (for...

The 1973 Raising of the School Leaving Age in England and Wales has been used to identify returns to years’ schooling. However, the reform affected the proportion with qualifications, as well as schooling length. To shed light on whether the returns reflect extra schooling or qualifications,...