In the Autumn 2015 edition of CentrePiece:

In this edition:

Academy schools and pupil outcomes

Nearly two thirds of secondary schools in England now have academy status. Andrew Eyles and Stephen Machin are tracking the impact of this unprecedented educational reform on pupil outcomes - in both the first wave of '... Read more...

In brief... Prejudice in a time of recession

Is there more racial prejudice when the economy is weak and does it result in greater racial discrimination in the workplace? In an exploration of UK social attitudes and labour market outcomes over the business cycle, D... Read more...

Healthcare: how competition can improve management quality and save lives

NHS hospitals in England are rarely closed in constituencies where the governing party has a slender majority. This means that for near random reasons, those parts of the country have more competition in healthcare - whi... Read more...

The upside of London Tube strikes

In February 2014, strikes by staff on London's underground network enabled a sizeable fraction of commuters to find better routes, according to research by Shaun Larcom, Ferdinand Rauch and Tim Willems. Many commuters w... Read more...

Regulatory reform in Greece: the benefits of removing maximum mark-ups

Regulations that impose maximum mark-ups are intended to protect consumers from firms exercising market power. But a study by Christos Genakos and colleagues suggests that they can have the opposite effect: when Greece l... Read more...

In brief... Under pressure: gender differences in responding to exam stakes

Do girls and boys respond differently to exam pressure, perhaps depending on the subject and whether or not the tests are 'high stakes'? Ghazala Azmat and colleagues consider evidence for secondary school age children ... Read more...

Wage stagnation and the legacy costs of employment

Although UK real wages have been stagnant for over a decade, there has been a notable increase in nonwage compensation. But as Brian Bell reveals, this rise consists largely of special payments to fund deficit gaps in '... Read more...

Immigration: the link to international trade in services

Two notable features of globalisation are the growth of immigration and the growth of international trade in services. Exploring links between these phenomena, Gianmarco Ottaviano, Giovanni Peri and Greg Wright find that... Read more...

In brief... Parental job loss: the impact on children's school performance

Unemployment is bad news not just for the individuals who lose their jobs but also for their families. Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela examines this underemphasised cost of economic downturns by measuring the impact of parental ... Read more...