Karl Taylor

Estimated effect of alcohol pricing policies on health and health economic outcomes in England: an epidemiological model

BACKGROUND Although pricing policies for alcohol are known to be effective, little is known about how specific interventions affect health-care costs and health-related quality-of-life outcomes for different types of drinkers. We assessed effects of alcohol pricing and promotion policy options in various population subgroups. METHODS We built an epidemiological mathematical model to appraise 18 pricing policies, with English data from the Expenditure and Food Survey and the General Household Survey for average and peak alcohol consumption. We used results from econometric analyses (256 own-price and cross-price elasticity estimates) to estimate effects of policies on alcohol consumption. We applied risk functions from systemic reviews and meta-analyses, or derived from attributable fractions, to model the effect of consumption changes on mortality and disease prevalence for 47 illnesses. FINDINGS General price increases were effective for reduction of consumption, health-care costs, and health-related quality of life losses in all population subgroups. Minimum pricing policies can maintain this level of effectiveness for harmful drinkers while reducing effects on consumer spending for moderate drinkers. Total bans of supermarket and off-license discounting are effective but banning only large discounts has little effect. Young adult drinkers aged 18-24 years are especially affected by policies that raise prices in pubs and bars. INTERPRETATION Minimum pricing policies and discounting restrictions might warrant further consideration because both strategies are estimated to reduce alcohol consumption, and related health harms and costs, with drinker spending increases targeting those who incur most harm. FUNDING Policy Research Programme, UK Department of Health.

Workplace Performance, Worker Commitment, and Loyalty

Using matched employer-employee level data drawn from the 2004 UK Workplace and Employee Relations Survey, we explore the determinants of a measure of worker commitment and loyalty (CLI) and whether CLI influences workplace performance. Factors influencing employee commitment and loyalty include age and gender, whilst workplace level characteristics of importance include human resource practices. With respect to the effects of employee commitment and loyalty upon the workplace, higher CLI is associated with enhanced workplace performance. Our findings that workplace human resources influence CLI suggest that employers may be able to exert some influence over the commitment and loyalty of its workforce, which, in turn, may affect workplace performance.

Productivity and Labour Demand Effects of Inward and Outward Foreign Direct Investment on UK Industry

We relate the technological and factor price determinants of inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) to its potential productivity and labour market effects on both host and home economies. This allows us to distinguish clearly between technology-sourcing and technology-exploiting FDI, and to identify FDI that is linked to labour cost differentials. We then empirically examine the effects of different types of FDI into and out of the UK on domestic (i.e. UK) productivity and on the demand for skilled and unskilled labour at the industry level.

Following in Your Parents' Footsteps? Empirical Analysis of Matched Parent-Offspring Test Scores

In this paper, we explore whether an intergenerational relationship exists between the reading and mathematics test scores, taken at age 7, of a cohort of individuals born in 1958 and the equivalent test scores of their offspring measured in 1991. Our results suggest that how the parent performs in reading and mathematics during their childhood is positively related to the corresponding test scores of their offspring as measured at a similar age. The results further suggest that the effect of upbringing is mainly responsible for the inter-generational relationship in literacy, while genetic effects seem more relevant with respect to numeracy.

Household Debt and Attitudes Toward Risk

We explore the relationship between attitudes toward risk and the level of debt at the household level for a sample of households drawn from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) over the period 1984 to 2007. Using a sequence of questions from the 1996 PSID, we analyze the implications of interpersonal differences in attitudes toward risk for the accumulation of unsecured debt, secured debt, and total debt at the household level. Our empirical findings suggest that attitudes toward risk are an important determinant of the level of debt acquired at the household level with risk aversion being inversely related to the level of debt accumulated by households.

UK Wage Inequality: An Industry and Regional Perspective

This paper looks at male wage inequality in the UK across industries and regions over a 15 year period. After controlling for the heterogeneity of productivity characteristics across the population, that part of wage inequality which cannot be explained by observable worker characteristics is examined. This is undertaken at both the industry and regional level to assess the key themes dominant in the literature capable of explaining within-group wage inequality, namely: technology; globalization; female participation; immigration; shifts in the supply of relative education across cohorts; and falling unionization. Copyright 2006 The Author; Journal compilation 2006 CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd..

Wage Growth, Human Capital and Financial Investment

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between wage growth, human capital and investment in financial assets at the individual level. We investigate this relationship using data from five waves of the British Household Panel Survey. We exploit panel data enabling us to determine the change in real wages experienced by individuals across four different time horizons, 1995-96, 1995-98, 1995-1700 and 1700-1. Our findings support a positive association between financial assets and wage growth with this relationship becoming more pronounced over time. In addition, our results suggest that investment in financial assets is positively associated with returns to human capital investment. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd and The University of Manchester, 2005.

Wage Spillovers, Inter-regional Effects and the Impact of Inward Investment

Abstract This paper evaluates the extent of inter-industry and inter-regional wage spillovers across the UK. An extensive body of literature exists suggesting that wages elsewhere affect wage determination and levels of satisfaction, but this paper extends the analysis of wage determination to examine the effects of inward investment in the process. Thus far the specific effect of foreign wages on domestic wage determination has not been evaluated. We employ industry- and regional-level panel data for the UK, and contrast results from alternative approaches to space-time modelling. Each supports the notion that such wage spillovers do occur, though assumptions made concerning the modelling of spatial interaction are important. Further, such wage spillovers are more widespread for skilled than for unskilled workers and also lower in areas of high unemployment.

Some tests on the long-run dynamics of black and official exchange rates: evidence for four East European countries☆

Abstract This paper investigates the long-run dynamics of black and official exchange rates in four East European countries over the period 1980–1990. Using well-known tests for cointegration, the results suggest that the speed of adjustment varies and would seem to depend on the economic maturity of the country. Further tests suggest that there is weak-form informational inefficiency in the black markets, which may be due, in part, to the costs of transaction and to the tight central administrative controls over foreign exchange.

The impact of technology and trade upon the returns to education and occupation

This paper considers how technological change and globalization has influenced the return to education and occupation in Great Britain over the period 1973 to 1994. A number of papers in the literature have documented increasing demand for individuals who possess higher skill endowments than their peers. Both education and occupation can be interpreted as an individuals observable skills and how technology and trade have actually influenced returns to different educational and occupational levels is something that has not been investigated in Great Britain. For the empirical analysis estimates are based upon pooled cross sections over time and also pseudo panel techniques to control for unobservable heterogeneity.