The Ethnicity Pay Gap

Research Report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC):
Longhi, S. and Brynin, M. (2017) The Ethnicity Pay Gap, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Research Report 108.

Here you can listen to a talk and a related podcast on The Ethnicity Pay Gap organised by the Social Market Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) within the Ask the Expert Series.  You can also read a short blog on the Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting published on the ESRC website.

A Practical Guide to using Panel Data

A textbook for those who would like to do empirical analysis with cross-section or longitudinal data but don’t know where to start.

This book describes the different types of panel datasets commonly used for empirical analysis, and how to use them for cross section, panel, and event history analysis. The book then discusses the data management and estimation processes, including the interpretation of the results and the preparation of the final output tables.

The Online Appendix includes worked examples, including Stata do and log files.

Longhi S., Nandi A. (2015) A Practical Guide to using Panel Data, Sage, London.

Cultural Diversity and Subjective Wellbeing

This paper analyses the impact that diversity has on life satisfaction of people living in England. In England, and in many other countries, local communities are becoming more diverse in terms of country of birth, ethnicity and religion of residents, with unclear consequences on the well-being of people living in these communities. The results suggest that white British people living in diverse areas have on average lower levels of life satisfaction than those living in areas where diversity is low, while there is no correlation on average between diversity and life satisfaction for non-white British people and foreign born.

Longhi S. (2014) Cultural Diversity and Subjective Wellbeing, IZA Journal of Migration, 2014, 3:13.

Employed and Unemployed Job Seekers and the Business Cycle

The job search literature suggests that on‐the‐job search reduces the probability of un employed people finding jobs. However, there is little evidence that employed and unemployed job seekers are similar or apply for the same jobs. We compare employed and unemployed job seekers in their individual characteristics, preferences over working hours, job‐search strategies and employment histories, and identify how differences vary over the business cycle. We find systematic differences which persist over the business cycle. Our results are consistent with a segmented labour market in which employed and unemployed job seekers are unlikely to directly compete with each other for jobs.

Longhi S., Taylor M. (2014) Employed and Unemployed Job Seekers and the Business Cycle, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 76(4) 463-483.

Long version: ISER Working Paper 2013-02.

The Effects of Agglomeration on Wages: Micro-Level Evidence

This paper estimates individual wage equations to test two rival non‐nested theories of economic agglomeration, namely New Economic Geography (NEG), as represented by the NEG wage equation and urban economic (UE) theory, in which wages relate to employment density. In the U.K. context, we find that for male respondents, there is no significant evidence that wage levels are an outcome of the mechanisms suggested by NEG or UE theory, but this is not the case for female respondents. We speculate on the reasons for the gender difference.

Fingleton B., Longhi S. (2013) The Effects of Agglomeration on Wages: Micro-Level Evidence, Journal of Regional Science, 53(3) 443-463.

Impact of Cultural Diversity on Wages, Evidence from Panel Data

This paper combines individual data from the British Household Panel Survey and yearly population estimates for England to analyse the impact that cultural diversity has on individual wages. Do people living in more diverse areas earn higher wages after controlling for other observable and unobservable characteristics? The results show that cultural diversity is positively associated with wages, but only when cross-section data are used, while panel data estimations show no impact of diversity. Since natives with comparatively higher skills – and wages – tend to self-select into more diverse areas, cross-section analyses may produce upwardly biassed results.

Longhi S. (2013) Impact of Cultural Diversity on Wages, Evidence from Panel Data, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 43(5) 797-807.

Explained and Unexplained Wage Gaps across the Main Ethno-religious Groups in Great Britain

We analyse the difference in average wages (the so called ‘wage gap’) of selected ethno-religious groups in Great Britain at the mean and over the wage distribution with the aim of explaining why such wage gaps differ across minority groups. We distinguish minorities not only by their ethno-religious background, but also by country (UK or abroad) in which people grew up and acquired their qualifications. We find that within all minority ethno-religious groups the second generation achieves higher wages than the first generation, but the amount that is explained by characteristics does not necessarily increase with generation.

Longhi S., Nicoletti C., Platt L. (2013) Explained and Unexplained Wage Gaps across the Main Ethno-religious Groups in Great Britain, Oxford Economic Papers, 65(2) 471-493.