Wiji Arulampalam

Is There a Glass Ceiling over Europe? Exploring the Gender Pay Gap across the Wages Distribution

Using harmonized data for the years 1995–2001 from the European Community Household Panel, the authors analyze gender pay gaps by sector across the wage distribution in eleven countries. In estimations that control for the effects of individual characteristics at different points of the distribution, they calculate the part of the gap attributable to differing returns between men and women. The magnitude of the gender pay gap, thus measured, varied substantially across countries and across the public and private sector wage distributions. The gap typically widened toward the top of the wage distribution (the “glass ceiling” effect), and in a few cases it also widened at the bottom (the “sticky floor” effect). The authors suggest that differences in childcare provision and wage setting institutions across EU countries may partly account for the variation in patterns by country and sector.

Is Unemployment Really Scarring? Effects of Unemployment Experiences on Wages

This paper looks at the effects of unemployment on re-employment wage for men using the first seven waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) conducted over the period 1991- 1997. In particular, how the effect of an interruption changes over time, and whether the type of interruption itself matters or not for re-employment wage, are addressed. The issue of sample selection and unobserved heterogeneity are also addressed in the analyses. This study finds that, unemployment does have a scarring effect on individuals who experience it, in terms of earnings losses on re-employment jobs. In particular it finds that, an unemployed individual on returning to work will earn about 6% less than an otherwise equivalent individual who makes an employment to employment transition, during the first year of employment. This differential is estimated to increase to about 14% in the fourth year before starting to decline. In addition, the first spell of unemployment is estimated to have the largest effect with repeat incidences causing a further scarring. Separations due to redundancy are found to be less scarring relative to other causes. The worst affected were men aged over 45 with no educational qualifications. The study could not find any significant effects of unemployment duration on subsequent wages in addition to the incidence effect.

Training and Labour Market Flexibility: Is There a Trade‐off?

This paper explores the nexus between work-related training and labour market ‘flexibility’ (which we proxy by contract type, part-time employment and lack of union coverage), using the first five waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) conducted over the period 1991–5. Our results show that workers on short-term employment contracts, who are working part-time or are not covered by a union collective agreement, are significantly less likely to be involved in any work-related training to improve or increase their skills. These findings suggest that there is a trade-off between expanding the more marginal forms of employment and expanding the proportion of the work-force getting work-related training.

The Determinants of Individual Unemployment Durations in an Era of High Unemployment

This paper presents the results of an econometric analysis of the conditional probability of leaving unemployment for two male inflow cohorts entering unemployment at very different points in time: 1978 and 1987. The effect of income while unemployed is found to be much weaker for the 1987 cohort, an elasticity of -0.1 compared with -0.4, and is only found to be significant for teenagers and in the first three months of a spell. Demand constraints, measured by the local unemployment rate, are found to have a stronger negative effect on the exit probability for the 1987 cohort than in 1978. Copyright 1995 by Royal Economic Society.

A Note on Estimated Coefficients in Random Effects Probit Models

This note points out to applied researchers what adjustments are needed to the coefficient estimates in a random effects probit model in order to make valid comparisons in terms of coefficient estimates and marginal effects across different specifications. These adjustments are necessary because of the normalisation that is used by standard software in order to facilitate easy estimation of the random effects probit model.

Factors affecting the probability of first year medical student dropout in the UK: a logistic analysis for the intake cohorts of 1980–92

Background  In the context of the 1997 Report of the Medical Workforce Standing Advisory Committee, it is important that we develop an understanding of the factors influencing medical school retention rates.

Learning and Earning: Do Multiple Training Events Pay? A Decade of Evidence from a Cohort of Young British Men

This paper estimates the impact of work‐related training on wage growth over the period 1981–91, using longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study, a cohort of young men aged 23 in 1981. A hurdle Negbin model is used to control for training endogeneity. We find that training incidence has a significant positive effect on wage growth. We also find that young men with a higher level of education are not only more likely to be trained, but are also more likely to experience substantially higher wage growth as a result.

Dropping out of medical school in the UK : Explaining the changes over ten years

Context  In the context of changing admissions criteria and an expanding medical school intake in the UK, we analysed the determinants of the medical school dropout probability.

The effects of designation and volume of neonatal care on mortality and morbidity outcomes of very preterm infants in England: retrospective population-based cohort study

Objective To examine the effects of designation and volume of neonatal care at the hospital of birth on mortality and morbidity outcomes in very preterm infants in a managed clinical network setting. Design A retrospective, population-based analysis of operational clinical data using adjusted logistic regression and instrumental variables (IV) analyses. Setting 165 National Health Service neonatal units in England contributing data to the National Neonatal Research Database at the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit and participating in the Neonatal Economic, Staffing and Clinical Outcomes Project. Participants 20 554 infants born at <33 weeks completed gestation (17 995 born at 27–32 weeks; 2559 born at <27 weeks), admitted to neonatal care and either discharged or died, over the period 1 January 2009–31 December 2011. Intervention Tertiary designation or high-volume neonatal care at the hospital of birth. Outcomes Neonatal mortality, any in-hospital mortality, surgery for necrotising enterocolitis, surgery for retinopathy of prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and postmenstrual age at discharge. Results Infants born at <33 weeks gestation and admitted to a high-volume neonatal unit at the hospital of birth were at reduced odds of neonatal mortality (IV regression odds ratio (OR) 0.70, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.92) and any in-hospital mortality (IV regression OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.85). The effect of volume on any in-hospital mortality was most acute among infants born at <27 weeks gestation (IV regression OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.79). A negative association between tertiary-level unit designation and mortality was also observed with adjusted logistic regression for infants born at <27 weeks gestation. Conclusions High-volume neonatal care provided at the hospital of birth may protect against in-hospital mortality in very preterm infants. Future developments of neonatal services should promote delivery of very preterm infants at hospitals with high-volume neonatal units.

Union status of young men in Britain: a decade of change

Previous empirical studies of individual union status in Britain have been cross-sectional. In contrast, we use longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study, to estimate the determinants of male trade union membership over the period 1981-1991. As suggested by union theories, we find that it is important to control for unobserved individual heterogeneity, and our preferred model allows for correlation of individual heterogeneity with observable variables. Our estimates reveal that the observed decline in very large workplaces, and the contraction of the public sector, explain about one third of the predicted decline in union membership over the period. Copyright