News
News
The ‘daughter penalty’ leaves mothers with first born daughters 30 per cent less pay than mothers with first born sons
New study used a decade of data from Understanding Society to track the earnings and behaviours of mothers following the birth of their first child
News
‘Shocking’ proportion of children in special schools not taking up their free school meals
Children attending special schools – who are already more likely than their peers to grow up in poverty and qualify for free school meals – are far less likely to access school food due to “unmet dietary and eating needs”
News
Understanding why fathers do not take up Shared Parental Leave
Our new evidence on parents’ attitudes and beliefs about shared parental leave to Women & Equalities Committee’s Equality at Work : Paternity and Shared Parental Leave inquiry
News
Survey Futures Position Statement on Response Rates – the expert perspective
“Surveys play a crucial role in informing policy and financial decisions, as well as in enhancing our understanding of major issues. Confidence in survey quality is vital – we need to be sure they are accurate”
News
Extending Free School Meals: our evidence on the positive impact on children’s health and educational outcomes

Our recent study finds free school meal provision improves reading scores and reduces obesity more than any other public health initiative
Event
Who is still offline? The digital divide and the feasibility of web-only surveys in the UK
The last decade has seen some high-quality surveys adopting web as the primary mode for data collection, a trend that has been accelerated due to the pandemic. To reach segments of the population without internet access, most high-quality surveys employ mixed-mode designs, which pair web surveys with an interviewer-administered mode,...
Presented by: Pablo Cabrera Álvarez (ISER, University of Essex)
Venue: 2N2.4.16
Event
From Amoral Familism to Civic Virtue? The Impact of the Tax and School Program on Prosocial Behavior
Civic norms are deteriorating in most democratic societies, raising fundamental challenges for the sustainability of the welfare state. This paper investigates whether civic values can be effectively instilled through early educational interventions. I study the Tax and School program, a nationwide initiative jointly implemented by the Italian Revenue Agency and...
Presented by: Enrico Rubolino (University of Lausanne)
Venue: 2N2.4.16
Event
A class apart and a class divided? Are financial elites really that different from other business elites?
Financial elites are considered different; set apart not just from ordinary people, but also other elite groups (Moran, 1981, Hall, 2009, Moran and Flaherty, 2023). In the UK, conventional wisdom has imbued financial elites with an extraordinary mystique of power. Critics have highlighted the influence of the financial sector in...
Presented by: Gary Fooks (University of Bristol) and Tom Mills (Aston University)
Venue: 2N2.4.16
Event
Uncovering Reporting Error with Survey Design
Survey data on incomes remain a key data source for measuring living standards and inequality but are known to suffer from reporting errors. Linked administrative data have been used to assess measurement error, but even when available such data often cover only specific components of income (for example, earnings) and/or...
Presented by: Dr. Paul Fisher, ISER, University of Essex
Venue: 2N2.4.16