Work in Progress

The Changing Nature of Work: What can we learn from Time Use Diaries?  (with Lynsey Brown, Rebecca Riley and Mechelle Viernes)

The shift to remote work has reshaped the nature of work, persisting well beyond the immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While much research has focused on its short-term consequences, less is known about why workers continue to prefer remote arrangements and how this impacts time use, productivity, and well-being. Using data from the Centre for Time Use Research and the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) spanning 2016–2024, this study examines changes in total working time and time spent working from home, the emergence of a new equilibrium in work patterns, and the factors driving the sustained prevalence of remote work. Our findings reveal that remote workers generally allocate commuting time savings to additional work rather than leisure and report lower enjoyment across daily activities compared to office workers. Additionally, perceived productivity in remote settings is slightly lower, suggesting that preferences for home-based work are largely driven by commuting avoidance rather than efficiency gains. These insights contribute to ongoing debates on the future of work, highlighting implications for employers designing hybrid policies and policymakers addressing commuting inefficiencies and work-related costs.

Geography of Opportunity: Spatial Differences in Social Mobility in England (with Pedro Carneiro, Sonya Krutikova, Julia Loh, Lindsey Macmillan)

This paper examines spatial differences in social mobility for men and women across England using novel administrative data for three cohorts of young adults born between 1985 and 1988. The analysis estimates both relative and upward social mobility at the local level, focusing on individuals who lived in a given area at age 16 and, separately, those who still reside in the same area at age 30. A direct comparison of these two measures provides insights into how each area performs in terms of inequality and the upward income trajectory of disadvantaged children. The paper also explores the key socio-economic characteristics of areas with lower relative and absolute mobility to better understand the factors contributing to their poorer outcomes.

Perseverance in the classroom: results from a randomised educational intervention in primary schools in England (with Sherria Hoskins and Heather Rolfe), submitted

 This paper studies the effect of a randomised educational intervention aimed at increasing perseverance in the classroom on cognitive outcomes, beliefs and attitudes towards learning. The trial is carried out in 100 primary schools in England. The subjects are Year 6 pupils who are introduced to the idea of resilience, perseverance and incremental intelligence by their teachers over several sessions. Pupils in the intervention group perceive significantly less that their intelligence is a fixed trait. The intervention also has a positive but not statistically significant effect on the positive attitude towards learning of treated pupils. However, unlike other related trials in psychology, education and economics, our analysis finds that the intervention has no impact on literacy nor numeracy overall, and that this applies across all pupils includ- ing those eligible for Free School Meals.

Global Competition, UK Labour Market Adjustment and the Brexit Vote (with Rebecca Riley)

  Media: The Times

 We explore the adjustment of local labour markets in the UK to the sharp rise in import competition from low-wage countries since the early 2000s. We find that the increase in UK imports from China and Eastern Europe accelerated the long-term trend decline in UK manufacturing jobs and led to a short-term increase in the unemployment rate in exposed areas. But, many workers in these areas found lower paid low-skilled jobs outside manufacturing, mitigating the effects of import competition on joblessness. Local labour markets that were most exposed to import competition shrank in size relative to other areas as highly educated workers left behind these parts of the UK. We also find that the electorate in exposed areas was more likely to vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Rather than the uneven gains from globalisation, it is the reallocation of highly educated workers across different areas of the UK that accounts for much of this link. When we also consider the rise in exports to low-wage countries, the measured effects of globalisation on local labour markets and the referendum result are less pronounced.

The effect of Austerity on educational attainment (with Gustave Kenedi, Sandra McNally and Olmo Silva, in progress)

Academies and the competition in local education markets (with Olmo Silva, in progress)

 Internal migration of young people in England and social mobility (in progress)

Board composition and gender wage gap in the UK (with Marcello Sartarelli, in progress)