Join us for the inaugural CLOSER Emerging Longitudinal Scholars Symposium, showcasing early career researchers at the frontier of longitudinal research. This year’s symposium explores themes at the intersection of health, wellbeing, and labour market (non-)participation.
About the series
Chaired by CLOSER’s Head of Education and Training, Dr Neil Kaye, our new annual Emerging Longitudinal Scholars Symposium Series provides a collaborative platform for fostering knowledge exchange and showcasing research by early career researchers using UK longitudinal population study data.
This year’s symposium features four early-career researchers who will share their findings on critical topics, including labour market inequality, the interplay between health and employment, and broader issues at the intersection of health, wellbeing and labour market (non-) participation.
We are also pleased to welcome Bruce Sinclair (UK Parliament) as our discussant for the session. He will reflect on the research presented, commenting on its relevance to policy, and sharing insights into evidence-informed decision-making.
Discussant biography
Bruce Sinclair is the Policy Analyst to the House of Lords Committee conducting a Special Inquiry into Social Mobility Policy.
Prior to this he was in the Committee Scrutiny Unit in the House of Lords Committee Office, where he was a policy analyst specialising in pre-legislative scrutiny including working on the draft online safety bill, and draft mental health reform bill. He also worked as a ‘trouble shooter’ on a number of other Lords Committees, including the Committees for: International Agreements, International Relations and Defence, Environment and Climate Change, Built Environment, and Justice and Home Affairs.
Prior to this he worked in a variety of roles in the House of Commons that were unrelated to policy. He previously had a twenty-year career in education teaching a wide range of social science subjects at A level and to undergraduates. He holds an MSc in Security Studies from UCL.
Programme of events
The symposium will feature a 20-minute talk from each of the presenting early career researchers, followed by commentary and insights from our discussant.
Families, Work, and Welfare States: How Family Formation Reshapes Household Income – Juliana de Castro Galvao (Nuffield College, University of Oxford)
How does family formation (marriage and parenthood) affect household incomes? While there is an extensive literature on the wage returns to marriage, particularly among men, and parenthood, particularly in what concerns motherhood penalties, much less is known about how these logically related issues impact family’s economic well-being. Leveraging the growing availability and maturity of longitudinal datasets across countries with different welfare state arrangements, this study examines how family events shapes long-term household income trajectories.
I use panel data from six countries. (N = 5,098 couples and 39,506 couple-years): the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID, 2001–2018), German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, 2001–2019), British Household Panel Study (BHPS, 2001–2008) and the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS, 2010–2018), the Swiss Household Panel (SHP, 2001–2019), the Australian Household Income Dynamics (HILDA, 2001–2018), and the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS, 2001–2018). The findings from an event study design with couple-level fixed effects, reveal that in all countries, albeit to varying degrees, women’s share of couple earnings declines following childbirth.
However, this increased within-couple inequality does not uniformly translate to declining household incomes. While pre-tax household incomes remain stable in the U.S. and in South Korea, they decline significantly in Australia, Switzerland, and the U.K., and Germany. Apart from the U.S. welfare state policies of taxes and transfers substantially reduce post-childbirth household income penalties. The study further demonstrates that these patterns are driven primarily by motherhood penalties rather than marital penalties/premiums or fatherhood premiums.
Simultaneous employment and health trajectories following a period of economic inactivity due to long-term sickness in the United Kingdom – Megan James (University of Sheffield)
Background: Rates of economic inactivity due to long-term sickness are rising in the UK. There is limited longitudinal research in the UK examining the interdependence of health and employment following a period of health-related economic inactivity.
Longitudinal data: Data from Waves 1 to 14 of the UK Household Longitudinal Study were used (2009-2024). Working-age individuals (16 to 64 years) who transition into a period of economic inactivity due to long-term sickness with five years of subsequent follow-up were included (N = 952).
Analysis methods: Multichannel sequence analysis (MCSA) was used to construct individual-level sequences in terms of economic activity status and self-rated health over a five-year period following a transition to a period of economic inactivity due to long-term sickness. Cluster analysis was used to group individuals with similar simultaneous employment-health trajectories into distinct typologies. Multinomial logistic regression analysis will be used to assess associations with characteristics prior to a period of long-term sickness.
(Preliminary) results: Five trajectory typologies were identified, characterised by stable transitions to full-time employment or retirement or precarious trajectories of part-time work and unemployment at differing levels of self-rated health following a period of health-related economic inactivity.
Implications and recommendations for policy: Policies aimed at reducing health-related economic inactivity should consider the diversity of employment-health trajectories following a period of long-term sickness, rather than solely focusing on the onset of health-related economic inactivity, to understand the factors associated with stable returns to employment.
A Job, But Not Necessarily a Good One: The Job Quality Penalty of Muslim Women in Britain – Samir Sweida-Metwally (New York University Abu Dhabi)
This study examines job quality disparities among Muslim women in Britain, addressing a critical gap in the literature by incorporating religious affiliation as an axis of labour market inequality. Drawing on pooled data from 12 waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we construct a multidimensional job quality index using exploratory factor analysis of 21 indicators encompassing both pay- and non-pay-related job attributes.
Employing multilevel linear modelling, we control for key demographic, ethnic, and employment characteristics. Our findings reveal a robust Muslim penalty in job quality: Muslim women consistently report significantly lower job quality scores compared to their Christian counterparts. This disadvantage is most pronounced in routine occupations. Similar negative effects are observed in intermediate roles; however, these differences do not reach statistical significance possibly due to sample size limitation. In managerial and professional roles, disparities are less pronounced and likewise not statistically significant.
These results underscore the need for more effective anti-discrimination legislation, coupled with robust enforcement. Employers and policymakers should develop targeted inclusion strategies to address the unique barriers faced by Muslim women, particularly in routine occupations. By integrating these measures, organizations can foster equitable job quality and reduce religiously based disadvantages, ultimately enhancing social and economic integration for marginalized communities.
Understanding earning inequalities in Peru: what is the role played by education? – Cesar Burga Idrogo (University College London)
Earning inequalities associated with social background are considerable in Peru. While Human Capital Theory suggests that income differences are explained to a considerable extent by differences in skills and education, there is still few research assessing the contribution of human capital formation to understanding gaps associated with social background.
In this presentation I will contribute to closing this literature gap by exploiting rich longitudinal data from Young Lives study.
I will start by conducting a series of OLS models to see how inequalities in hourly earnings (in log) varies by three different measures of social background: mother educational attainment, gender and ethnic background. Then, I will conduct a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to see which variables play the major role to explain these gaps. Four sets of variables will be included: motivational, human capital formation (prior academic achievement, educational attainment, major), sociodemographic factors (region, location) and occupational characteristics (industry, type of job).
My preliminary findings show that different types of variables are more or less important depending on the source of inequality. While prior human capital formation is key to determining inequalities associated to mothers’ educational background, sociodemographic and occupational characteristics are more important to understand gender gaps. Inequalities by ethnic background appear to depend on a similar way on educational attainment and sociodemographic characteristics.
Overall, my findings support the idea of designing targeted policies to address each type of inequality.
How to register
The symposium will be delivered via MS Teams. Instructions for how to access the session will be sent to all registered attendees prior to the session.
Please book your place via the webinar Eventbrite to ensure you receive the joining details.
The session will be recorded and videos posted after the event has ended.
Further information
If you have any questions or require further information, please contact CLOSER Administrative and Events Assistant, Becky England (becky.england@ucl.ac.uk).