Does more free childcare help parents work more?

Many governments are considering expanding childcare subsidies to increase the labour force participation of parents (especially mothers) with young children. In this paper, we study the potential impact of such a policy by comparing the effects of offering free part-time childcare and of expanding this offer to the whole school day in the context […]

Mental health and satisfaction with partners: a longitudinal analysis in the UK

[…] determinants of health (SDH) literature shows that poor mental health and well-being are linked to weaker personal and social connections for individuals, families, and society. The causal impact that mental health has on satisfaction with partners is less understood but requires investigation. Methods: The causal relationship between mental health and satisfaction with partners is […]

Broadband Internet and social capital

We study the impact of broadband penetration on social capital in the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits a technological feature of the telecommunication infrastructure that generated substantial variation in the quality of Internet access across households. The speed of a domestic connection rapidly decays with the distance of a user’s line from the network’s […]

Air pollution and individuals’ mental wellbeing in the adult population in United Kingdom: a spatial-temporal longitudinal study and the moderating effect of ethnicity

[…] both LSOAs and local-authority levels. Decomposing air pollution into spatial-temporal (between-within) effects showed significant between, but not within effects; thus, residing in more polluted local-authorities/LSOAs have higher impact on poor mental well-being than the air pollution variation across time within each geographical area. Analysis by ethnicity revealed higher odds of poor mental well-being with […]

Socioeconomic risks of food insecurity during the Covid‑19 pandemic in the UK: findings from the Understanding Society Covid Survey

[…] insecurity measure used. Experiencing Covid-19 symptoms explained less than 5% of the likelihood of being food insecure for single parents but approximately 30% of not having access to healthy and nutritious food for young people. Conclusion: Policies providing additional financial support may help to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on food insecurity in the UK.

The effects of Uber diffusion on the mental health of drivers

While the spread of digital technologies and the growth of associated atypical forms of work are attracting increasing attention, little is known about the impact of these new forms of work on psychological well-being. This paper examines the effect of Uber diffusion on the mental health of drivers, taking advantage of the rollout of […]