Education and skills

Blog

LSE Politics and Policy:

How to reform the planning system to support growth in the UK

The UK's planning system is a critical bottleneck for growth. Invest 2035, the government's proposed industrial strategy, states that planning reform is one of the fundamental shifts needed to help companies invest in th...Read more...

Submission to a parliamentary inquiry and government consultation

Invest 2035: the UK's modern industrial strategy

This document presents the submission made in response to the consultation on "Invest 2035: the UK's modern industrial strategy." The consultation was conducted by the Department for Business and Trade from 14 October 20...Read more...

Journal article

Economics of Education Review: Forthcoming

Effect of secondary education on cognitive and non-cognitive skills

We examine the effects of secondary education on cognitive and non-cognitive skills using admission cutoffs to general secondary schools. We measure these skills using the Finnish Defence Forces Basic Skills Test, which,...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Achieving net zero by 2050 requires changes to the UK skills landscape

As COP29 brings climate action into focus, it's clear that policy must go beyond carbon trading and finance. To make net zero a reality, the workforce must be equipped with the right skills. Aadya Bahl examines what this...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Assessing the costs of balancing college and work activities: The gig economy meets online education

Balancing the demands of work and schooling is a challenging task for an increasing number of students who have to pay their way through college and for workers who intend to upgrade their skills. However, flexible learn...Read more...

CVER Research Paper

The mismatch earnings penalty

We disentangle the relationship between student ability, course quality and the match between the two on earnings, estimating the first mismatch parameter in the literature. Using administrative data on all state-educate...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Empirical welfare analysis with hedonic budget constraints

We analyze demand settings where heterogeneous consumers maximize utility for product attributes subject to a nonlinear budget constraint. We develop nonparametric methods for welfare-analysis of interventions that chang...Read more...

Blog

Economics Observatory:

UK higher education finance: what's the problem and what can be done?

The tripling of tuition fees in 2012 put universities in a strong financial position. But since then, fees - and the maintenance loans that support students - haven't kept up with inflation. Now, students face real hards...Read more...

Blog

LSE Politics and Policy:

Investing in mental health is both a moral and an economic imperative

Mental illness is a leading cause of absenteeism and a driver of long-term sickness, which poses a significant economic cost due to economic inactivity. It accounts for half of all morbidity (the rate of disease in a pop...Read more...

CentrePiece article

How to build a citizen

Schools are where the next generation learns not only how to understand the world but also how to change it. Research by Simon Briole, Marc Gurgand, Eric Maurin, Sandra McNally, Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela and Daniel Santin ...Read more...

Submission to a parliamentary inquiry and government consultation

Industry and Regulators Committee

The UK is a service-led economy, with strengths in sectors such as financial and business services, the creative and cultural industries, and life sciences, which together employ 20% of the workforce. To build on these s...Read more...

Journal article

Scottish Journal of Political Economy:

Parental time investments and instantaneous well-being in the United States

This study investigates the relationship between maternal education, child-care time, and well-being in the United States, with a particular focus on the role of societal norms. Highly educated mothers spend more time on...Read more...

Blog

LSE Inequalities:

Sliding down the Great Gatsby curve in search of the Scandinavian dream

The new UK government has separate missions to break down the barriers to opportunity and to boost growth - together, the "Scandinavian dream". The problem, write Steve Machin and Lee Elliot Major, is Britain's high leve...Read more...

Blog

LSE Politics and Policy:

Absence rates will stay high until the Covid generation leaves school

School absences increased massively during the Covid-19 pandemic and remain at higher levels. Our new research (funded by the Nuffield Foundation) shows that the high level of pupil absence in England can be attributed t...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Economic growth requires breaking the cycle of poor work and ill health

Work is an important part of our lives and crucial to wellbeing. But "good" work that offers security and autonomy is unevenly distributed. Workers in lower-paid jobs often find themselves trapped in "bad" jobs, characte...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Education makes women, not men, more likely to have children

Given the wide-ranging consequences of declining fertility rates, academics and policymakers around the world are increasingly interested in understanding what influences men's and women's decision to start a family. Han...Read more...

CEP report

Absence and attainment: Evidence from pandemic policy

A high level of school absence has persisted across many countries since the COVID-19 pandemic. We use English data to investigate whether a student's absence during the pandemic had a causal impact on school attendance...Read more...

CEP report

Pupil absence and the pandemic

This report investigates lost education time during the COVID-19 pandemic in England. We look at the general factors affecting rates of absence during different stages of the pandemic and the consequences of specific pol...Read more...

CEP report

Overview: The pandemic, pupil attendance and achievement

School absences increased massively during the Covid-19 pandemic and remain high internationally. We investigate whether policy variation in restrictions influenced pupil absence during the pandemic and how this affected...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Elite universities and the intergenerational transmission of human and social capital

Do elite colleges help talented students join the social elite, or help incumbent elites retain their positions? We combine intergenerationally-linked data from Chile with a regression discontinuity design to show that, ...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

The educational choices of British 16-year-olds matter for the economy

The choices that British 16-year-olds are making in the next few weeks about their future studies matter not just for them and their families but also for the nation's economy. Britain needs a workforce with graduate-le...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Urban Economics: Forthcoming

The spatial impacts of a massive rail disinvestment program: The Beeching Axe

This paper investigates the reversibility of the effects of transport infrastructure investments, based on a programme that removed much of the rail network in Britain during the mid-20th century. We find that a 10% loss...Read more...

Blog

Handbook of Labor Economics:

Handbook Talk with Stephen Machin: How does crime impact the economy and society? (Podcast)

In this podcast episode dedicated to the new edition of the Handbook of Labor Economics, Professor from the London School of Economics discusses the recent advances in the Economics of Crime. What are the economic con...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of International Economics: Forthcoming

New dawn fades: Trade, labour and the Brexit exchange rate depreciation

This paper studies consequences of the large exchange rate depreciation occurring when the UK electorate unexpectedly voted to leave the European Union. Sterling plummeted, recording the biggest one-day depreciation of a...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Paternity leave and child development

We study the effect of paternity leave on early child development. We collect survey data on 5,000 children under age six in Spain and exploit several extensions of paternity leave that took place between 2017 and 2021. ...Read more...