Working Paper Series
The Department of Social Policy multidisciplinary working paper series publishes high quality research papers across the broad field of social policy.
Latest publications
George Bowron
Abstract: This study addresses the Personal Independence Payment application and assessment process, one which has been criticised extensively by claimants, disability rights groups, and international organisations. Motivated by personal experiences with disability and the PIP system, the research prioritises the voices of disabled individuals which are often sidelined in policy discussions. Employing a disability human rights lens and phenomenological approach, the study explores the subjective experiences of PIP claimants through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. By centring the narratives of claimants, the research aims to shed light on potential disparities across disability types, contributing to broader conversations about disability rights and welfare policy.
Katrin Gasior, Iva V. Tasseva, and Gemma Wright
Abstract: The effectiveness of social protection during economic shocks depends on two types of benefit: non-shock-responsive benefits, fixed prior to crisis, and automatic stabilisers, which adjust with income or employment losses. We analyse effectiveness in seven Sub-Saharan African countries using tax-benefit microsimulation models and household survey data. Simulating employment losses, we apply a decomposition framework to isolate the role of each benefit type. We find that high pre-crisis coverage of non-shock-responsive benefits in Ghana and Zambia and income-related automatic stabilisers in South Africa provide an income floor for poor households. South Africa’s unemployment insurance further mitigates losses among better-off households. In contrast, limited protection is available in Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, where benefits are modest, coverage gaps substantial, and automatic stabilisers ineffective due to absent unemployment insurance, reliance on proxy means-tests, and narrow eligibility.
Keywords: social protection benefits, non-shock-responsive benefits, automatic stabilisers, economic shocks, poverty
Anne West, George Rushworth, Lina Cramer, Romane Balcomb-Nevill
Abstract: This working paper focuses on admissions to grammar schools in Germany and the UK (England). Although there are academically selective schools in England (grammar schools) and Germany (Gymnasien) there is a paucity of comparative research addressing the legislative provision, policy and approaches used to select pupils. This working paper seeks to shine a light on the institutional rules that apply to the selection and admission of children to grammar schools and Gymnasien and the characteristics of the main beneficiaries of selective schooling. We find clear differences between the two countries, with legislation being the responsibility of the Land in Germany and the national government in the case of England. A key distinguishing feature is that admission to a Gymnasium in Germany is based on the recommendation of the child’s primary school; this may or may not be binding on parents. In England, admission to grammar school is based on the 11-plus test, which varies between schools/academy trusts / local authority areas. Notwithstanding the differences in policy and approaches used to selection, the evidence indicates that those who attend selective schools in both countries tend to be from more rather than less advantaged families.
Key words: Grammar schools, Gymnasium, selective education, England, Germany, teacher recommendation, 11-plus
Citizens in the making: Analysing Italy’s first attempt to define what makes a citizen in the context of immigration
Victoria Donnaloja
In the Fine Print: Investigating EdTech Providers’ Data Privacy Commitment
Barud, K., Henne, T., Hillman, V., Radkoff, E., Saillant, C., Zdravevski, E.
School admissions in comparative perspective: A focus on China, Chile, Sweden and Germany
Anne West, Lina Cramer, Francisca Ladouch, Meixuan Pu, Ella Westlake
AIED and EdTech Procurement: Challenges for Policy and Governance
Velislava Hillman, Yujeong Hwang, Simon Walker, Peter Wilson
Key words: EdTech procurement, audit, public registry, primary and secondary schools, Further Education, Higher Education, AI
Read here
‘I have no problems because I am white’ : Understanding immigrants’ wellbeing and its relationship with the destination population’s attitudes towards immigrants.
Michaela Sedovic
Key words:subjective wellbeing, immigrants, intergroup contact, attitudes towards immigrants, new destination country, Slovakia
The Misuse of Citizenship and Residence by Investment: Going beyond the FATF/OECD Report to Assess Key Risks
Kristin Surak
Key words: investment migration, citizenship by investment, residence by investment, money laundering, financial crimes, tax
Degrees of vulnerability to poverty: A low-income dynamics approach for Chile
Joaquín Prieto-Suarez
Key words: Chile; Latin America; longitudinal data; middle class; poverty dynamics; vulnerability to poverty
Perceptions Matter: Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Spain’s New Minimum Income on Households’ Financial Wellbeing
Eugenia Bilbao-Goyoaga
Key words: Financial Wellbeing, Subjective Wellbeing, Minimum Income, Poverty, Quasi-Experiment, Synthetic Control Method
COVID-19 Testing, Tracing and Isolating Strategies in the UK (England)
Anne West
Key words: COVID-19, TTI, testing, contact tracing, isolation strategies
Household Joblessness in US Metropolitan Areas during the COVID19 Pandemic: Polarization and the Role of Educational Profiles
Thomas Biegert, Berkay Ozcan, and Magdalena Rossetti-Youlton
Key words: household joblessness, COVID19, polarization, educational heterogeneity, educational homogamy
Effects of team diversity on performance, perceptions, and predictions: Experimental evidence of gender composition and language
Valentina Contreras, Chiara Orsini, Berkay Ozcan, and Johann Koehler
Key words: Peer effects, Higher education, Gender, Linguistic diversity
Hostility of lived environment as a determinant of immigrants’ life satisfaction
Case of England and Wales
Michaela Šedovič
Key words: subjective wellbeing, contact theory, attitudes towards immigrants, immigrants‘ integration
The impact of centre-based childcare on non-cognitive skills of young children
Greta Morando & Lucinda Platt
Key words: centre-based childcare, child socio-emotional development, Growing Up in Ireland
Age at marriage and marital stability: Evidence from China
Jorge Garcia-Hombrados and Berkay OzcanKey words: Age at marriage, divorce, legal age of marriage, China
Edtech procurement matters: It needs a coherent solution, clear governance and market standards
Velislava Hillman
Key words: edtech, data privacy, edtech procurement, children, education
School funding and resourcing policies- Meeting the needs of disadvantaged pupils in France, Poland, UK (England), China, New Zealand, Singapore
Anne West, Sarah Ang, Valentin Calori, Ning Wang, Frederick Waters and Julia Wodzinska
Key words:school funding, resourcing, compensatory funding, needs, disadvantage, equality of opportunity
Poverty traps and affluent shields: Modelling the persistence of income position in Chile
Joaquín Prieto
Key words: Longitudinal data; poverty persistence; affluence persistence; income mobility; Chile; Latin America.
How does children’s time allocation affect their noncognitive skills? Evidence from four developing countries
Grace Chang
Key words: Child labour, non-cognitive skills, time use.
Reporting COVID-19 deaths in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the UK
Anne West, Thomas Czypionka, Monika Steffen, Stefanie Ettelt, Simone Ghislandi, Céu Mateus
Key words: Comparative health policy, comparative administration, data for policy making, data harmonization, COVID-19, comparable health data.
What’s Left? Political orientation, economic conditions, and incarceration in Greece under Syriza-led government
Leonidas K. Cheliotis and Sappho Xenakis
Key words: Government political orientation; economic downturn; imprisonment; immigration detention; Syriza
Read here
University research engagement around climate knowledge: findings from a small empirical study
David Lewis
Key words: research-policy interface; knowledge brokers; policy engagement; public policy
The sounds of development: Musical representations as (an)other source of development knowledge
David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock
Key words: Music, protest, representation, development, knowledge
How uneven is the playing field? Inequality of socio-economic opportunity in the UK, 2009-2017 (MSc Dissertation)
David Flatscher
Key words: Inequality of opportunity, income inequality, social disadvantage
Read here
Government and NHS reform since the 1980s: the role of the market vis à vis the state, and of political ideas about the ‘direction of travel’
Jane Lewis
Key words: English NHS, NHS reform, political ideas, ideas in policymaking
Identity, belonging and economic outcomes in England and Wales (Postgraduate dissertation)
Ivelina Hristova
Key words: identity economics, sub-state national and ethnic diversity, progression at work
Upper and lower bound estimates of inequality of opportunity: A cross-national comparison for Europe
Rafael Carranza
Key words: circumstances; equality of opportunity; equivalized household income; inequality; MLDindex; upper bound estimate.
Recent trends in religiosity of majority and minority European populations
Ayse Guveli and Lucinda Platt
Key words: religion; religiosity; migrants; second generation; Europe; natives; prayer; attendance.
Read here
Loaded lesbians: how far do negotiations in the private sphere transfer to the labour market? (Undergraduate dissertation)
Liz Searle
Key words: (re/un-doing) gender; domestic labour; sexuality pay-gap; lesbian; housework.
Neither dupes, not pipers: violent crime, public sentiment and the political origins of mass incarceration in the United States
Leonidas K. Cheliotis
Key words: mass incarceration, violent crime, public sentiment, politics of criminal justice
The lasting effects of natural disasters on property crime: evidence from the 2010 Chilean earthquake
Jorge García Hombrados
Key words: Natural disasters; crime; social capital.
Stalling of mortality in the United Kingdom and Europe: an analytical review of the evidence
Michael Murphy, Marc Luy and Orsola Torrisi
Key words: Life expectancy; UK mortality trends; Europe mortality trends; Influenza; Austerity.
Female genital cutting and education: theory and causal evidence from Senegal
Jorge García Hombrados and Edgar Salgado
Key words: Female genital cutting, education, harmful traditions.
Read the related blog post here.
Preterm births and educational disadvantage: heterogenous effects across families and schools
Anna Baranowska-Rataj, Kieron Barclay, Joan Costa-Font, Mikko Myrskylä and Berkay Özcan
Key words: SEN, disability, social isolation, loneliness, life-course
Growing up lonely? Exploring the social outcomes of three generations identified with special education needs or disabilities in childhood
Samantha Parsons and Lucinda Platt
Key words: SEN, disability, social isolation, loneliness, life-course
Read the related blog post here.
Reducing Mommy Penalties with Daddy Quotas
Allison Dunatchik and Berkay Özcan
Key words: family policy, gender roles, parental leave, work, work-family issues
Inter-ethnic relations of teenagers in England's schools: the role of school and neighbourhood ethnic composition
Simon Burgess and Lucinda Platt
Key words: ethnicity, attitudes, contact, children, school context
Two Become One: Improving the Targeting of Conditional Cash Transfers With a Predictive Model of School Dropout
Cristian Crespo
Key words: conditional cash transfers, targeting, school dropout prediction, machine learning, proxy means tests
Cash for Grades or Money for Nothing? Evidence from Regression Discontinuity Designs
Cristian Crespo
Key words: cash for grades, regression discontinuity, bono por logro escolar, cash transfers
Social Policy with Tunnel Vision: The problems of state efforts to curb adolescent pregnancy in Post 1988 Brazil
Beatriz Burattini- MSc Dissertation
Key words: adolescent pregnancy, sexual citizenship, legibility, health indicators, medicalisation
Social entrepreneurship before neoliberalism? The life and work of Akhtar Hameed Khan
David Lewis
Keywords: social entrepreneurship; non-governmental organisations (NGOs); community development; public administration; rural development; life history
A different perspective on the evolution of UK income inequality
A.B. Atkinson and Stephen P. Jenkins
Key words: inequality, tax unit, household, Gini coefficient, income tax data, household survey data, HBA1, SPI
Perspectives on poverty in Europe
Stephen P. Jenkins
Key words: poverty, material deprivation, Europe, EU-SILC
What are the factors that lead to the disengagement in activism over an individual's lifetime in the Global South?
Daniel Silver
Key words: Activism, social movements, sustainability, civil society
NGOs and the success paradox: Gay activism 'after' HIV/AIDS in China
Timothy Hildebrandt
Keywords: NGOs, LGBT, HIV/AIDS, China, development, aid