Tag Archives: experiments

Learning About Inequality Increases Concern, But Not Necessarily Support for Redistribution

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

A puzzle: income inequality between the top 1% and the rest has surged in the last few years, yet support for redistribution among the general public has actually declined (see figure below). Do people not care about inequality, or do … Continue reading →

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Does truth matter?

Posted on May 3, 2013 by

If you’re reading this blog, then you’re probably interested in ‘the truth’ – by which I mean that you’re interested in the way the world really is, rather than pretending it’s the way you want it to be. We tend … Continue reading →

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When social policy goes wrong

Posted on July 19, 2012 by

When social policy experts create a new intervention to solve some social problem or make people’s lives better, there’s two possible outcomes they’re expecting: either the intervention works, or it doesn’t. But what we forget is that there’s a third … Continue reading →

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The hidden costs of disability

Posted on April 24, 2012 by

How much does a disability cost you? Let’s take the example that (slightly too easily) comes to mind for most people: a disability that means you need a wheelchair to get around – how much of a dent in your … Continue reading →

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Moving on – a social experiment

Posted on February 9, 2012 by

At a time of economic crisis, so the folk wisdom usually goes, any job is better than no job – no matter how badly paid or how poor the prospects. Yet perhaps surprisingly, all the talk in the UK is … Continue reading →

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New York City Wants to Solve Poverty, Will it Work?

Posted on August 4, 2011 by

Anti-poverty successes are celebrated nationally, but how quickly we forget the failures. Does anybody remember the New York City conditional cash transfer program for poor families, Opportunity NYC? The program, which supporters hoped would help to change the behaviors of … Continue reading →

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Paying Kids to Be Better Students

Posted on February 25, 2011 by

School is often boring, and even the best students are difficult to motivate from time to time. In America’s inner city schools – the kinds of places with metal detectors at the doors and drug dealers lurking on the corners … Continue reading →

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Why evidence-based policy won’t tackle inequalities

Posted on January 3, 2011 by

There are some buzzwords that can win an argument all by themselves.  You can’t describe yourself as against ‘fairness’ or ‘freedom’, for instance, or object to ‘social justice’ – however wrong-headedly they’re being used. And for policy-focused researchers, our clinching … Continue reading →

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Male ego as a cause of the gender pay gap

Posted on December 17, 2010 by

It’s the sort of research finding that seems perfectly designed for one of those free newspapers you can pick up in big cities: ‘women shy away from competitive workplaces’.  And it’s partly true – a great new real-life experiment does … Continue reading →

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Who in their Right Mind Takes Out a Payday Loan?

Posted on December 9, 2010 by

There are not many easy ways for people with bad credit and few assets to get cash quickly, but payday lenders are one of them. The business model for payday lending is remarkably simple. A person borrows a sum of … Continue reading →

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