We explore the determinants of debt and financial asset accumulation at the household level using survey data for Great Britain, Germany and the United States (US). Given that debt and assets are both components of a household’s financial portfolio, we explore the degree of inter-dependence...

In this paper, we explore the determinants of one aspect of religious behaviour – church attendance – at the individual level using British data derived from the National Child Development Study (NCDS). To be specific, we focus on the relationship between education and church attendance,...

In this paper we utilise the British National Child Development Study to explore the determinants of children’s career expectations formed at the age of sixteen. We analyse how such career expectations impact upon human capital accumulation at the same age. We also analyse the extent of any...

We contribute to the literature on household mortgage debt by exploring one particular influence on mortgage debt at the household level, namely the financial expectations of the individuals within the household. Our theoretical model predicts a positive association between the quantity of...

In this paper we show that optimistic financial expectations impact positively on both the uantity of debt and the growth in debt, at the individual and household levels. Our heoretical model shows that this association is predicted under a variety of plausible cenarios. In the empirical...

Using an under-utilised dataset on consumer and business confidence indicators across the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands, this paper considers the extent to which such indicators are linked to GDP and the business cycle. We adopt, cross correlation descriptive statistics, Granger...

This paper uses panel data across UK manufacturing from 1983 to 1992, to test whether inward flows of FDI have contributed to increasing trends in the employment of relatively higher skilled individuals. Moreover, the paper isolates the effect on domestic firms, and shows that this effect is a...

Instrumental efficiency wage models predict an inverse relationship between wages and supervision with this relationship becoming more pronounced amongst firms that participate in some form of employee sharing. To be sure, our theoretical exposition predicts that an increase in total...

We explore the significance of intra-couple and intra -household influences on three broad types of employment contracts: self-employment, performance related pay, and salaried employment. Individuals may pool income risk with their partners by holding a diversified portfolio of employment...

The aim of this paper is to explore how interpersonal variation in risk preference affects human capital investment and, hence, wage growth. To date, there has been a distinct lack of empirical research in this area despite the fact that the risk preference of individuals plays a key role in the...