This paper explores the links between school, family and areabackground influences during adolescence and later adult economicoutcomes. The empirical analysis is based on data covering the period1979 to 1996, drawn from the 1979 US National Longitudinal Survey ofYouth. For a sample of...

This paper is motivated by the lack of any obvious relationship betweenaggregate poverty and unemployment in Great Britain. We derive aframework based on individuals’ risks of unemployment and poverty,and how these vary over the economic cycle. Analysing the BritishHousehold Panel Survey for...

We provide a critique of the methods that have been used to derive measures ofincome risk and draw attention to the importance of demographic factors as asource of income risk. We also propose new measures of the contribution tototal income risk of demographic and labour market factors....

We examine whether unemployment early in an individual’scareer influences her later employment prospects. We use six yearsof the LFS to create pseudo-cohorts and exploit cross-cohortvariation in unemployment at school-leaving age to identify this.We find heterogeneous responses: for the...

The rise in inequality and poverty is one of the most important economicand social issues in recent times. But in contrast to the literature onindividual earnings inequality, there has been little work modelling (asopposed to documenting) household income dynamics. This is largelybecause of the...

This paper uses evidence from the US to examine the impact ofadolescent illegal consumption and violent behaviour on later lifechances. Specifically, we look at the effect of such behaviour by youngmen in late adolescence on productivity and household formation tenyears on. We find that alcohol...

Microfinance continues to play an ever increasing role in approaches topoverty alleviation around the world. Yet despite the attention paid tomicrofinance, the design of credit contracts for small uncollateralized loansremains a bit of a mystery. From its inception, microfinance generated agreat...

We analyze optimal contracts and optimal matching patterns in a simple model of partnershipwhere there is a double-sided moral hazard problem and potential partners differ intheir productivity in two tasks. It is possible for one individual to accomplish both tasks (soleproduction) and there are...

The National Health Insurance Scheme (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, RSBY) aims to improve poor people’s access to quality health care in India. This paper looks at the implementation of the scheme in Karnataka, drawing on a large survey of eligible households and interviews with empanelled...

This paper analyzes an environment where a plotof land is currently under agricultural use under tenancy, andboth the landlord and the tenant can invest to enhance agricultural productivity. There is the possibility of converting theland to non-agricultural use. We analyze the incentives of...