Economics - Research Publications

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    The child health/family income gradient: Evidence from England
    Currie, A ; Shields, MA ; Price, SW (ELSEVIER, 2007-03-01)
    Recent studies using Canadian and US data have documented a positive relationship between family income and child health, with the slope of the gradient being larger for older than younger children [Case, A., Lubotsky, D., Paxson, C., 2002. Economic status and health in childhood: the origins of the gradient. American Economic Review 92, 1308-1334; Currie, J., Stabile, M., 2003. Socioeconomic status and child health: why is the relationship stronger for older children? American Economic Review 93, 1813-1823]. In this paper we explore whether or not these findings hold for England, analysing a sample of over 13,000 children (and their parents) drawn from the Health Survey for England. While we find consistent and robust evidence of a significant family income gradient in child health, using the subjective general health status measure, the slope of the gradient is very small. Moreover, we find no evidence that the slope of the gradient increases with child age. Furthermore, we find no evidence of such a gradient with more objective measures, based on nurse examinations and blood test results. Together these results suggest that family income is not a major determinant of child health in England. Finally, we provide some evidence that nutrition and family lifestyle choices have an important role in determining child health and that child health is highly correlated within the family.
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    Investigating the quitting decision of nurses: Panel data evidence from the British National Health Service
    Frijters, P ; Shields, MA ; Price, SW (WILEY, 2007-01)
    In this paper, we provide a detailed investigation into the quitting behaviour of nurses in the British National Health Service (NHS), using a recently constructed longitudinal survey. We fit both single and competing risks duration models that enable us to establish the characteristics of those nurses who leave the public sector, distinguish the importance of pay in this decision and document the destinations that nurses move to. Contrary to expectations, we find that the hourly wage received by nurses outside of the NHS is around 20% lower than in the NHS, and that hours of work are about the same. However, while the effect of wages is found to be statistically significant, the predicted impact of an increase in nurses' pay on retention rates is small. The current nurse retention problem in the NHS is therefore unlikely to be eliminated through substantially increased pay.
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    Can the large swings in russian life satisfaction be explained by ups and downs in real incomes?
    Frijters, P ; Geishecker, I ; Haisken-DeNew, JP ; Shields, MA (WILEY, 2006)
    Abstract Russians reported large changes in their life satisfaction over the post‐transition years. In this paper, we explore the factors that drove these changes, focusing on exogenous income changes, using panel data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey over the period 1995 to 2001 and implementing a recently developed ordinal fixed‐effects estimator. We apply a causal decomposition technique that allows for bias arising from panel attrition when establishing aggregate trends in life satisfaction. Changes in real household incomes explained 10% of the total change in reported life satisfaction between 1996 and 2000, but up to 30% of some year‐on‐year changes.
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    The causal effect of income on health: evidence from German reunification
    FRIJTERS, P. F. ; HAISKEN-DENEW, J. P. ; SHIELDS, M. ( 2005)
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    Job search methods and their success: A comparison of immigrants and natives in the UK
    Frijters, P ; Shields, MA ; Price, SW (BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, 2005-11)