In this paper, we consider research on links between higher education and family background, focu... more In this paper, we consider research on links between higher education and family background, focusing particularly on the experiences of two cohorts of individuals born in 1958 and 1970. The findings point to a rise in educational inequality during the period relevant ...
There is currently debate in policy circles about access to ‘the upper echelons of power’ (Sir Jo... more There is currently debate in policy circles about access to ‘the upper echelons of power’ (Sir John Major, ex Prime Minister, 2013). This research explores the relationship between family background and early access to top occupations. We find that privately educated graduates are a third more likely to enter into high-status occupations than state educated graduates from similarly affluent families and neighbourhoods, largely due to differences in educational attainment and university selection. We find that although the use of networks cannot account for the private school advantage, they provide an additional advantage and this varies by the type of top occupation that the graduate enters.
There is now a burgeoning literature on the topic of 'overeducation' (and the complemen... more There is now a burgeoning literature on the topic of 'overeducation' (and the complementary concept of 'undereducation'), and a growing quantity of UK empirical evidence on this issue. However, as Joop Hartog indicated in his keynote address to the Applied Econometrics ...
Centre For the Economics of Education, Mar 1, 2006
Throughout the post-war period there have been many attempts to reform the UK education system. T... more Throughout the post-war period there have been many attempts to reform the UK education system. This article reviews empirical evidence looking at the impact of some key reforms which were designed to address a number of specific problems in the UK education system, namely poor and apparently falling standards in schools, the low staying on rate at age 16, the relatively poor basic skills of the UK population and persistent inequalities in Higher Education.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 09645292 2013 855705, Nov 12, 2013
The use of fixed (FE) and random effects (RE) in two-level hierarchical linear regression is disc... more The use of fixed (FE) and random effects (RE) in two-level hierarchical linear regression is discussed in the context of education research. We compare the robustness of FE models with the modelling flexibility and potential efficiency of those from RE models. We argue that the two should be seen as complementary approaches. We then compare both modelling approaches in our empirical examples. Results suggest a negative effect of special educational needs (SEN) status on educational attainment, with selection into SEN status largely driven by pupil level rather than school-level factors.
Social mobility has emerged as one of the key academic and political topics in Britain over the l... more Social mobility has emerged as one of the key academic and political topics in Britain over the last decade. Although economists and sociologists disagree on whether mobility has increased or decreased, and if this is a bigger issue in the UK than other developed countries, both groups recognise that education and skill plays a key role in explaining intergenerational persistence. This has led academics from various disciplines to investigate how rates of cognitive development may vary between children from rich and poor backgrounds. A number of key studies in this area have reached one particularly striking (and concerning) conclusion -that highly able children from disadvantaged homes are overtaken by their rich (but less able) peers before the age of 10 in terms of their cognitive skill. This has become a widely cited "fact" within the academic literature on social mobility and child development, and has had a major influence on public policy and political debate. In this paper, we investigate whether this finding is due to a spurious statistical artefact known as regression to the mean (RTM). Our analysis suggests that there are serious methodological problems plaguing the existing literature and that, after applying some simple adjustments for RTM, we obtain dramatically different results.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 03054980903216333, Sep 30, 2009
In this paper we offer an appraisal of the economics of education research area, charting its his... more In this paper we offer an appraisal of the economics of education research area, charting its history as a field and discussing the ways in which economists have contributed both to education research and to education policy-making. In particular, we highlight the theoretical and methodological contributions that economists have made to the field of education during the last 50 years. Despite the success of the economics of education as a field of inquiry, we argue that some of the contributions made by economists could be limited if the economics of education is seen as quite distinct from the other disciplines working in the field of education. In these areas of common interest, economists need to work side by side with the other major disciplines in the field of education if their contribution to the field is to be maximised, particularly in terms of applying improved methodology. We conclude that the study of education acquisition and its economic and social impact in the economics of education research area is very likely to remain a fertile research ground.
ABSTRACT This book explores that question in unprecedented detail, drawing on empirical evidence ... more ABSTRACT This book explores that question in unprecedented detail, drawing on empirical evidence from an impressive array of sources. While much of the focus is on the educational system in the United Kingdom, the book offers lessons of international applicability. A state-of-the-art compendium on education policy and its impact on educational attainment, the book examines numerous large-scale data sources on individual pupils and schools. The questions the book considers are far-ranging: How much do teachers matter for children's educational attainment? What payoff do people get from acquiring more education when they enter the labor market? How well do education systems function to provide employers with the skills they want? The book concludes by issuing some strong policy recommendations and offering an evaluation of what does and does not work in improving educational attainment. The recommendations address such issues as school effectiveness, education financing, individual investment in education, government education initiatives, higher education, labor market rewards, and lifelong learning.
We consider the relative academic achievement in primary school of second‐generation immigrant ch... more We consider the relative academic achievement in primary school of second‐generation immigrant children in the UK. The education progress of these groups of children is of historical interest and is also relevant to the policy debate today, since ethnic minority students in England continue to have lower levels of achievement in primary school, though they go on to catch up with their white counterparts in secondary school. We use rich data for a cohort born in 1970 and find that children born to South Asian or Afro‐Caribbean parents have significantly lower levels of cognitive achievement in both mathematics and language in primary school. Our analysis also reveals that the negative impact from being born to South Asian parents decreases during primary school, while the negative effect from being born to Afro‐Caribbean parents remains approximately stable. Hence, our evidence shows that even as long ago as the late 1970s, while most ethnic minority groups had lower academic achievement in primary school, some groups of ethnic minority pupils, namely those from South Asia, were showing signs of ‘catch‐up’.
Research Brief No: 465 August 2003 ISBN 1 84478 070 8 SECTORAL AND AREA ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMIC ... more Research Brief No: 465 August 2003 ISBN 1 84478 070 8 SECTORAL AND AREA ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF QUALIFICATIONS AND BASIC SKILLS Stephen Machin, Anna Vignoles and Fernando Galindo-Rueda University Collese London and the Centre ...
The recent industrial action taken by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) has given the ... more The recent industrial action taken by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) has given the issue of academic pay high prominence in the UK press. There appears to be a remarkable consensus that higher education academic salaries are too low, relative to other groups of workers in the UK, and that this is leading to an academic 'brain drain'. There is concern that this in turn will result in lower quality higher education, as universities fail to attract the 'brightest and the best'. To rise above the rhetoric, there is a pressing need for robust evidence on relative academic salaries. In this paper, we compare the salaries of Higher Education teaching professionals in the United Kingdom with those of other comparable professionals. We offer evidence on relative salaries in HE academia over the last decade or so and we compare academic salaries to a range of different comparator groups, including some specific occupational groupings that one might view as more similar, in terms of unobserved characteristics, to academics. We then consider the extent to which the gap between the earnings of HE academics and that of other occupations is attributable to differences in the characteristics of academics, for example the fact that they are more highly educated on average, or to differences in the price paid for a given set of characteristics.
... for Teenagers Research report for the Low Pay Commission Augustin De Coulon 1,2 , Elena Mesch... more ... for Teenagers Research report for the Low Pay Commission Augustin De Coulon 1,2 , Elena Meschi 2 , Joanna Swaffield 3 , Anna Vignoles 2 , Jonathan Wadsworth 4 January 2010 ... 19 1.5.1. Conflicting effect of the introduction of the EMA ..... 22 ...
In this paper, we consider research on links between higher education and family background, focu... more In this paper, we consider research on links between higher education and family background, focusing particularly on the experiences of two cohorts of individuals born in 1958 and 1970. The findings point to a rise in educational inequality during the period relevant ...
There is currently debate in policy circles about access to ‘the upper echelons of power’ (Sir Jo... more There is currently debate in policy circles about access to ‘the upper echelons of power’ (Sir John Major, ex Prime Minister, 2013). This research explores the relationship between family background and early access to top occupations. We find that privately educated graduates are a third more likely to enter into high-status occupations than state educated graduates from similarly affluent families and neighbourhoods, largely due to differences in educational attainment and university selection. We find that although the use of networks cannot account for the private school advantage, they provide an additional advantage and this varies by the type of top occupation that the graduate enters.
There is now a burgeoning literature on the topic of 'overeducation' (and the complemen... more There is now a burgeoning literature on the topic of 'overeducation' (and the complementary concept of 'undereducation'), and a growing quantity of UK empirical evidence on this issue. However, as Joop Hartog indicated in his keynote address to the Applied Econometrics ...
Centre For the Economics of Education, Mar 1, 2006
Throughout the post-war period there have been many attempts to reform the UK education system. T... more Throughout the post-war period there have been many attempts to reform the UK education system. This article reviews empirical evidence looking at the impact of some key reforms which were designed to address a number of specific problems in the UK education system, namely poor and apparently falling standards in schools, the low staying on rate at age 16, the relatively poor basic skills of the UK population and persistent inequalities in Higher Education.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 09645292 2013 855705, Nov 12, 2013
The use of fixed (FE) and random effects (RE) in two-level hierarchical linear regression is disc... more The use of fixed (FE) and random effects (RE) in two-level hierarchical linear regression is discussed in the context of education research. We compare the robustness of FE models with the modelling flexibility and potential efficiency of those from RE models. We argue that the two should be seen as complementary approaches. We then compare both modelling approaches in our empirical examples. Results suggest a negative effect of special educational needs (SEN) status on educational attainment, with selection into SEN status largely driven by pupil level rather than school-level factors.
Social mobility has emerged as one of the key academic and political topics in Britain over the l... more Social mobility has emerged as one of the key academic and political topics in Britain over the last decade. Although economists and sociologists disagree on whether mobility has increased or decreased, and if this is a bigger issue in the UK than other developed countries, both groups recognise that education and skill plays a key role in explaining intergenerational persistence. This has led academics from various disciplines to investigate how rates of cognitive development may vary between children from rich and poor backgrounds. A number of key studies in this area have reached one particularly striking (and concerning) conclusion -that highly able children from disadvantaged homes are overtaken by their rich (but less able) peers before the age of 10 in terms of their cognitive skill. This has become a widely cited "fact" within the academic literature on social mobility and child development, and has had a major influence on public policy and political debate. In this paper, we investigate whether this finding is due to a spurious statistical artefact known as regression to the mean (RTM). Our analysis suggests that there are serious methodological problems plaguing the existing literature and that, after applying some simple adjustments for RTM, we obtain dramatically different results.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 03054980903216333, Sep 30, 2009
In this paper we offer an appraisal of the economics of education research area, charting its his... more In this paper we offer an appraisal of the economics of education research area, charting its history as a field and discussing the ways in which economists have contributed both to education research and to education policy-making. In particular, we highlight the theoretical and methodological contributions that economists have made to the field of education during the last 50 years. Despite the success of the economics of education as a field of inquiry, we argue that some of the contributions made by economists could be limited if the economics of education is seen as quite distinct from the other disciplines working in the field of education. In these areas of common interest, economists need to work side by side with the other major disciplines in the field of education if their contribution to the field is to be maximised, particularly in terms of applying improved methodology. We conclude that the study of education acquisition and its economic and social impact in the economics of education research area is very likely to remain a fertile research ground.
ABSTRACT This book explores that question in unprecedented detail, drawing on empirical evidence ... more ABSTRACT This book explores that question in unprecedented detail, drawing on empirical evidence from an impressive array of sources. While much of the focus is on the educational system in the United Kingdom, the book offers lessons of international applicability. A state-of-the-art compendium on education policy and its impact on educational attainment, the book examines numerous large-scale data sources on individual pupils and schools. The questions the book considers are far-ranging: How much do teachers matter for children's educational attainment? What payoff do people get from acquiring more education when they enter the labor market? How well do education systems function to provide employers with the skills they want? The book concludes by issuing some strong policy recommendations and offering an evaluation of what does and does not work in improving educational attainment. The recommendations address such issues as school effectiveness, education financing, individual investment in education, government education initiatives, higher education, labor market rewards, and lifelong learning.
We consider the relative academic achievement in primary school of second‐generation immigrant ch... more We consider the relative academic achievement in primary school of second‐generation immigrant children in the UK. The education progress of these groups of children is of historical interest and is also relevant to the policy debate today, since ethnic minority students in England continue to have lower levels of achievement in primary school, though they go on to catch up with their white counterparts in secondary school. We use rich data for a cohort born in 1970 and find that children born to South Asian or Afro‐Caribbean parents have significantly lower levels of cognitive achievement in both mathematics and language in primary school. Our analysis also reveals that the negative impact from being born to South Asian parents decreases during primary school, while the negative effect from being born to Afro‐Caribbean parents remains approximately stable. Hence, our evidence shows that even as long ago as the late 1970s, while most ethnic minority groups had lower academic achievement in primary school, some groups of ethnic minority pupils, namely those from South Asia, were showing signs of ‘catch‐up’.
Research Brief No: 465 August 2003 ISBN 1 84478 070 8 SECTORAL AND AREA ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMIC ... more Research Brief No: 465 August 2003 ISBN 1 84478 070 8 SECTORAL AND AREA ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF QUALIFICATIONS AND BASIC SKILLS Stephen Machin, Anna Vignoles and Fernando Galindo-Rueda University Collese London and the Centre ...
The recent industrial action taken by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) has given the ... more The recent industrial action taken by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) has given the issue of academic pay high prominence in the UK press. There appears to be a remarkable consensus that higher education academic salaries are too low, relative to other groups of workers in the UK, and that this is leading to an academic 'brain drain'. There is concern that this in turn will result in lower quality higher education, as universities fail to attract the 'brightest and the best'. To rise above the rhetoric, there is a pressing need for robust evidence on relative academic salaries. In this paper, we compare the salaries of Higher Education teaching professionals in the United Kingdom with those of other comparable professionals. We offer evidence on relative salaries in HE academia over the last decade or so and we compare academic salaries to a range of different comparator groups, including some specific occupational groupings that one might view as more similar, in terms of unobserved characteristics, to academics. We then consider the extent to which the gap between the earnings of HE academics and that of other occupations is attributable to differences in the characteristics of academics, for example the fact that they are more highly educated on average, or to differences in the price paid for a given set of characteristics.
... for Teenagers Research report for the Low Pay Commission Augustin De Coulon 1,2 , Elena Mesch... more ... for Teenagers Research report for the Low Pay Commission Augustin De Coulon 1,2 , Elena Meschi 2 , Joanna Swaffield 3 , Anna Vignoles 2 , Jonathan Wadsworth 4 January 2010 ... 19 1.5.1. Conflicting effect of the introduction of the EMA ..... 22 ...
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