News

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

Event

Tracing the Genetic Footprints of the UK National Health Service

Selection biases can distort causal estimates and undermine policy evaluations, yet detecting and quantifying selection remains empirically challenging. This paper introduces a novel method for detecting and quantifying selective survival using genetic data. Specifically, Polygenic Indices (PGIs) are predetermined at birth and should be equally distributed between treatment and control...

Presented by: Dr Nicolau Joaquim Martin Bassols (University of Bologna)

Venue: 2N2.4.16

Podcast

Older people’s health and living situation

Championing the ONS Longitudinal Study, Professor Emily Grundy and Dr Emily Murray discuss the value of this data source for research into health and ageing.

Podcast

Housing policy

The housing crisis – a simple question of too much demand and not enough supply, or is there more to it? With Rory Coulter, Associate Professor in Human Geography at University College London, and Kevin Garvey, Head of Member Relations at the National Housing Federation.

Podcast

Arts and wellbeing

What is the relationship between the arts and our mental health? Are they good for our mental health, or are happier people more likely to engage in the arts? The guests for this episode are Hei Wan (Karen) Mak, a senior research fellow in epidemiology and statistics at UCL and Nicky Goulder, CEO of Create, which puts on creative workshops in schools, day centres, prisons, and hospitals.