Events

Hosted by the LSE-Fudan Global Public Policy Hub and the Department of Social Policy, LSE

3 December 2025, 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM, Old Building, LSE. OLD 2.21, WC2A 2AE

Abstract: China-Africa economic engagement has entered a new phase centred around the internationalisation of private capital. Private businesses are not only seemingly ubiquitous in African markets, but also deeply embedded in the African political economies in which they operate. This paper foregrounds the centrality of embeddedness to firm internationalisation by introducing a typology of embedded networks – defined as the configurations of firms’ (in)formal linkages with different actors in a particular operational context. It outlines how the modalities of Chinese private capital internationalisation are mediated by different network configurations and how these translate in varied development outcomes.

Speaker: Elisa Gambino (Global Development Institute University of Manchester, UK)

Chair: Dr Timothy Hildebrandt (Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy)

Book your place to attend the seminar here.

Lunch and refreshments will be served before the seminar.

Presenter: Dr Philip Noden (Department of Social Policy, LSE)

Chair: Dr Sonia Exley (Department of Social Policy, LSE)

The seminar will illustrate some of the opportunities and challenges of carrying out research within Ofsted. This will be illustrated through a discussion of completed research projects. These include, for example, an investigation of whether there was a relationship between school quality and the probability of imprisonment during early adulthood and a project focusing on pupil absence during inspections.

1-2:30pm

Attend in person- OLD 2.21

Or register to attend online here

Presenter: Dr Joanna Clifton-Sprigg (The University of Bath)

Chair: Professor Almudena Sevilla (Department of Social Policy, LSE

We investigate the relationship between parental working from home (WFH) and school absence in England following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using administrative data on school absence from local authorities between 2011 and 2023, we exploit variation in WFH potential – constructed from occupational data linked to the 2011 Census – in a difference-in-differences event study design. Contrary to recent claims by policymakers, we find that higher WFH potential leads to lower school absence rates. Areas with above-median WFH potential saw a reduction in overall absence by 0.3–0.35 percentage points (around 7%), with effects larger in secondary schools and driven almost entirely by decreases in unauthorised absences.

1-2:30pm

Attend in person- OLD 2.21

Or register to attend online here