New Labour and work-time regulation: a Marxian analysis of the UK economy

This article examines the impact of work-time regulation, introduced by the UK’s New Labour governments (1997–2010). In doing so, we return to Marx’s hypotheses regarding the length of the working day. These include the arguments that class conflict over the length of the working day is inherently distributional in a surplus-value sense and that […]

The impact of social capital on consumption insurance and income volatility in the UK: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

[…] individual and household level, and use them as explanatory variables in standard consumption insurance tests. We find that two out of three aspects of social capital positively impact on consumption smoothing, by reducing the sensitivity of idiosyncratic consumption to idiosyncratic income, both in the long and in the short run. Such effects, however, turn […]

Housing need outcomes in England through changing times: demographic, market and policy drivers of change

The housing system in England has experienced unprecedented stress and instability over the last decade, absorbing the impact of demographic pressure, a credit-fuelled boom, financial crisis, recession and policy change. A failing supply system and unexpected tenure changes now confront austerity and welfare cutback. How have these conditions impacted on traditional and contemporary indicators […]

The long-run effects of attending an elite school: evidence from the United Kingdom

This paper estimates the impact of elite school attendance on long-run outcomes including completed education, income, and fertility. Our data consist of individuals born in the 1950s and educated in a UK district that assigned students to either elite or non-elite secondary schools. Using instrumental variables methods that exploit the school assignment formula, we […]

Does ethnic diversity have a negative effect on attitudes towards the community? A longitudinal analysis of the causal claims within the ethnic diversity and social cohesion debate

[…] decline in social cohesion. However, to date, the evidence for this claim is based solely on cross-sectional research. This article performs the first longitudinal test of the impact of diversity, applying fixed-effects modelling methods to three waves of panel data from the British Household Panel Survey, spanning a period of 18 years. Using an […]

The 2005 London terror attacks: an investigation of changes in psychological wellbeing and social capital pre- and post-attacks (2003-07) – a UK panel study

[…] the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil to date. Past acts of terrorism have been associated with deterioration in population mental health. They may also negatively impact levels of social capital, which is considered a buffer against poor mental health outcomes. By employing panel data from the British Household Panel Survey and following […]

Employee satisfaction and use of flexible working arrangements

This article considers the impact of flexible working arrangements (FWAs), using the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society, 2001–10/11. Results of panel logit, ANCOVA and change-score analysis are indicative of positive impacts from use of a number of FWAs, including homeworking having positive effects for men and women on job and leisure satisfaction. […]

The local roots of the participation gap: inequality and voter turnout

[…] the rich and the poor. There is little agreement, however, about whether inequality across time and space increases or decreases participation. In this paper we examine the impact of inequality across space. We suggest that the impact of inequality depends crucially on whether it is defined in terms of variations between geographical units (‘segregation’) […]