Mainly education policy and social mobility. Most of this was part of my phd or collaborations with think tanks.

Working Papers

• Changing Jobs: Worker Mobility and Wages in the UK Labour Market

  with Pinjas Albagli, Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, and Guglielmo Ventura

  Economica, (August 2026)

  Abstract

  We study the role of job-to-job transitions in shaping wage dynamics in the UK. We show that job moves have continued to generate substantial wage gains for movers even during a period of real wage stagnation and declining labour market mobility. Using an econometric model that accounts for worker, firm and match heterogeneity, we decompose the job mobility premium, and find a limited role for worker and firm effects, with most of the return explained by match-specific factors. We also examine the determinants of job mobility, and show that much of its recent decline reflects compositional changes in the workforce, particularly ageing and increasing occupational professionalization. We conclude by discussing the policy challenges of promoting job mobility as a driver of wage growth and more efficient labour market reallocation.

Published Papers

• Changing Jobs: Worker Mobility and Wages in the UK Labour Market

  with Pinjas Albagli, Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, and Guglielmo Ventura

  Economica, (August 2026)

  Abstract

  We study the role of job-to-job transitions in shaping wage dynamics in the UK. We show that job moves have continued to generate substantial wage gains for movers even during a period of real wage stagnation and declining labour market mobility. Using an econometric model that accounts for worker, firm and match heterogeneity, we decompose the job mobility premium, and find a limited role for worker and firm effects, with most of the return explained by match-specific factors. We also examine the determinants of job mobility, and show that much of its recent decline reflects compositional changes in the workforce, particularly ageing and increasing occupational professionalization. We conclude by discussing the policy challenges of promoting job mobility as a driver of wage growth and more efficient labour market reallocation.

• Intergenerational Home Ownership

  with Jo Blanden and Stephen Machin

  Journal of Economic Inequality, (April 2023)

  Abstract

  This paper studies intergenerational links in home ownership, an increasingly important wealth marker and a measure of economic status in itself. Repeated cross sectional UK data show that home ownership rates have fallen rapidly over time, most markedly amongst younger people in more recent birth cohorts. Evidence from British birth cohorts data supplemented by the Wealth and Assets Survey show a significant rise through time in the intergenerational persistence of home ownership, as home ownership rates shrank disproportionately among those whose parents did not own their own home. Given the close connection between home ownership and wealth, these results on strengthening intergenerational persistence in home ownership are therefore also suggestive of a fall in intergenerational housing wealth mobility over time.

• The Introduction of Academy Schools to England's Education

  with Stephen Machin

  Journal of the European Economic Association, (August 2019)

  Abstract

  This paper studies the origins of what has become one of the most radical and encompassing programmes of school reform seen in the recent past in advanced countries — the introduction of academy schools to English education. Academies are independent state funded schools that are allowed to run in an autonomous manner outside of local authority control. Almost all academies are conversions from already existent state schools and so are school takeovers that enable more autonomy in operation than was permitted in their predecessor state. Studying the first round of conversions that took place in the 2000s, where poorly performing schools were converted to academies, a focus is placed on legacy enrolled pupils who were already attending the school prior to conversion. The impact on end of secondary school pupil performance is shown to be positive and significant. Performance improvements are stronger for pupils in urban academies and for those converting from schools that gained relatively more autonomy as a result of conversion.

• Academies 2 – The New Batch: The Changing Nature of Academy Schools in England

  with Olmo Silva and Stephen Machin

  Fiscal Studies, (March 2018)

  Abstract

  The English education system has undergone large-scale restructuring through the introduction of academy schools. The most salient feature of these schools is that, despite remaining part of the state sector, they operate with more autonomy than the predecessors they replaced. Two distinct periods of academy school introduction have taken place, under the auspices of different governments. The first batch was initiated in the 2002–03 school year by the Labour government of the time, and was a school improvement programme directly aimed at turning around badly performing schools. The second batch involved a mass academisation process following the change of government in May 2010, resulting in increased heterogeneity of new academies. This paper compares the two batches of introduction with the aim of getting a better understanding of their similarities and differences, and their importance for education policy. Whilst we do point out some similarities, these are the exception rather than the norm. For the most part, our analysis reveals a number of marked dissimilarities between the two programmes, in terms of both the characteristics of schools that became academies and the changes in pupil intakes that occurred post-conversion.

• Unexpected School Reform: Academisation of Primary Schools in England

  with Stephen Machin and Sandra McNally

  Journal of Public Economics, (November 2017)

  Abstract

  The UK change of government in 2010 provoked a large structural change in the English education landscape. Unexpectedly, the new government offered primary schools the chance to have 'the freedom and the power to take control of their own destiny', with better performing schools given a green light to fast track convert to become an academy school. In England, schools that become academies have more freedom over many ways in which they operate, including curriculum design, budgets, staffing issues and the shape of the academic year. However, the change to allow primary school academisation has been controversial. This paper reports estimates of the causal effect of academy enrolment on primary school pupils. While the international literature provides growing evidence on the effect of school autonomy in a variety of contexts, little is known about the effect of autonomy on primary schools (which are typically much smaller than secondary schools) and in contexts where the converting school is not deemed to be failing or disadvantaged. The key findings are that English primary schools did change their mode of operation after the exogenous policy change, utilising more autonomy and changing spending behaviour, but this did not lead to improved pupil performance.

• School Reforms and Pupil Performance

  with Claudia Hupkau and Stephen Machin

  Labour Economics, (August 2016)

  Abstract

  The relationship between school reforms, specifically those involving the introduction of new school types, and pupil performance is studied. The particular context is the introduction of academy schools in England, but related evidence on Swedish free schools and US charter schools is also presented. The empirical evidence shows a positive causal impact of the conversion of disadvantaged schools to academies on end of school pupil performance and on the subsequent probability of degree completion at university. There is heterogeneity in this impact, such that more disadvantaged pupils and those attending London academies experience bigger performance improvements.

• Academies, Charter and Free Schools: Do New School Types Deliver Better Outcomes?

  with Claudia Hupkau and Stephen Machin

  Economic Policy, (July 2016)

  Abstract

  School reforms featuring the introduction of new types of schools have occurred in the education systems of a number of countries. The most well-known of these new school types to be recently introduced are charter schools in the United States, free schools in Sweden and academy schools in England. We review the evidence on the impact of the introduction of these new schools on pupil outcomes and present new evidence for the case of England, whose introduction of academy schools has been one of the most radical changes in the school landscape of the recent past. The analysis of academies, charter and free schools concludes that, in certain settings, they can improve pupil performance.

Policy & Other Writing

• A Generation at Risk: Rebalancing Education in the Post-Pandemic Era

  with Lee Elliot Major, Esme Lillywhite, and Stephen Machin

  Nuffield Foundation, April 2024

• The Rising Tide of School Absences in the Post-Pandemic Era

  with Lee Elliot Major and Esme Lillywhite

  LSE British Politics and Policy, June 2023

• Train in Vain?

  with Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, Kathleen Henehan, and Sandra McNally

  Economy 2030 Inquiry, December 2022

• Rising School Absences: The Post-Pandemic Education Divide

  with Lee Elliot Major

  LSE British Politics and Policy, October 2022

• The Johnson Legacy: Education

  UK in a Changing Europe, August 2022

• In Brief… Social Mobility in the Time of Covid-19

  LSE-CEP Centre Piece Magazine, Summer 2022

• Social Mobility: Past, Present, and Future

  with Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

  Sutton Trust, June 2022

• Gloomy Prospects for Social Mobility in the Pandemic Era

  with Lee Elliot Major

  Sutton Trust, June 2022

• Levelling Up Education

  UK in a Changing Europe, April 2022

• COVID Has Hit Social Mobility in the UK, and Young People's Prospects Are Shrinking

  LSE Blogs, January 2022

• Changing Jobs

  with Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, Tzvetan Moev, and Guglielmo Ventura

  Economy 2030 Inquiry, January 2022

• Social Mobility in the Time of Covid

  Economy 2030 Inquiry, December 2021

• Learning Loss Since Lockdown

  with Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

  LSE-CEP Centre Piece, Autumn 2021

• Education's Biggest Challenge Is Ensuring Consistency in What Is Being Done Across the System

  with Lee Elliot Major

  LSE Politics and Policy, September 2021

• Learning Loss Since Lockdown: Variation Across the Home Nations

  with Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

  LSE-CEP Covid-19 Analysis, July 2021

• Pupils Lost a Third of Their Expected Learning During COVID, with Wales and Scotland Even Further Behind

  with Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

  LSE Blogs, July 2021

• How Has COVID-19 Disrupted the UK Labour Market, and How Can Better Adult Training and Job Placement Aid the Recovery?

  The International Public Policy Observatory, April 2021

• Covid-19 and Education Inequality: A Missed Opportunity?

  with Lee Elliot Major

  Submission to the House of Commons Select Committee, March 2021

• Further School Closures Mean Bleak Prospects for the Young

  with Lee Elliot Major

  LSE Blogs, January 2021

• COVID-19 and Social Mobility: The Public Support Key Policies That Will Help Limit Widening Inequalities in Employment and Education

  with Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

  LSE Politics and Policy, November 2020

• Generation COVID: Emerging Work and Education Inequalities

  with Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

  LSE-CEP Covid-19 Analysis, October 2020

• Denied Jobs and Schooling, 'Generation COVID' Faces a Struggle to Catch Up

  with Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin

  LSE Blogs, October 2020

• Covid-19 School Shutdowns: What Will They Do to Our Children's Education?

  with Stephen Gibbons and Piero Montebruno

  LSE-CEP Covid-19 Analysis, May 2020

• The Impact of Academies on Educational Outcomes

  with Jon Andrews, Natalie Perera, Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, Stephen Machin, Matteo Sandi, and Olmo Silva

  Education Policy Institute, July 2017

• Primary Academies in England

  with Sandra McNally and Stephen Machin

  LSE-CEP Centre Piece, Winter 2016

• Budget 2016: Highly Questionable Whether the Academisation of All Schools Is Good Policy

  with Stephen Machin

  LSE British Politics and Policy, March 2016

• Academy Schools and Pupil Outcomes

  with Stephen Machin

  LSE-CEP Centre Piece, Winter 2015