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We examine relationships between motivations towards higher education choices, gender and beliefs about the financial consequences of these choices. We control for home background, school type and students' expectations of grades they will achieve at age 16. We use a unique individual-level UK data set from a random sample of schools with a student sample size of 5012. These motivations are coded on six-point Likert scales so our modelling approach is by means of 'multivariate ordered logit' regressions. Boys express a much stronger motivation towards private financial gain whilst girls express stronger motivation towards occupational status and contributions towards society. We also find strong positive associations between motivation towards personal financial gain and beliefs about the financial value of a higher education. Our results support a multi-stranded theory of motivation towards higher education that takes account of beliefs about the external environment as well as self-beliefs about future academic achievement.

We present an analysis of A-level subject choices at around age 16 for a cohort of students in English schools who completed their studies in 2014. We examined both the National Pupil Database and a unique rich dataset on the subject preferences and subsequent choices between the ages of 16 and 18 (i.e. GCSE and A-level). We found substantive differences between students' preferences and actual choices of 'hard' and 'soft' post-16 subjects (i.e. A-level). These differences were strongly associated with falsification of students' expectations of examination grades taken at age 16 (i.e. GCSE) in the core subjects of English and mathematics. The sizes of these falsification effects were much larger than other significant associations such as gender, ethnicity, and social class. This suggests that subject choices are not rigidly framed by stable individual preferences and they are therefore open to influence from new information, persuasion, and opportunities.

Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance is a recognised threat to human health and may be driven by the unsafe disposal of antibiotics via domestic waste streams, contaminating the environment. A community pharmacy based antibiotic amnesty could address this. Methods: We evaluated the impact of an antibiotic amnesty promoting the return of unused antibiotics to community pharmacies in the Midlands region of England during World Antibiotic Awareness Week in November 2021. Results: Two hundred and thirty nine pharmacies participated voluntarily and held amnesty conversations with 7399 people, 369 part used and 126 full packs of antibiotics were returned. Conclusions: This is an important public health initiative that could be replicated more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2009.01160.x Byline: Facundo Albornoz (1), Matthew A. Cole (1), Robert J. R. Elliott (1), Marco G. Ercolani (1) Abstract: There is an extensive literature that examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and the productivity and competitiveness of domestic firms. Using estimation techniques from the productivity spillover literature, this paper tests for the presence of environmental spillovers from foreign firms. On the basis that foreign-owned firms may encourage firms in their extended supply chain to improve their environment-related management practices, evidence for the existence of environmental spillovers should be easier to find than productivity spillovers where firms naturally attempt to minimise intra-industry knowledge leakage. In this paper we show that, first, foreign-owned firms are more likely to implement environmental management systems (EMS) and, second, that the presence of foreign-owned firms in those sectors that a firm supplies can encourage good environmental practice. This is especially true if a firm is foreign, has high absorptive capacity, and operates in the presence of formal and informal networks. Author Affiliation: (1)University of Birmingham, UK

United Kingdom data from 1963 to 1997 are used to illustrate a scalar multivariate risk premium decomposition that yields components that are easily interpreted when used in a consumer theory context. A more intuitive interpretation of the beneficial and detrimental impacts of price and income risk is shown.

Purpose – Older people are often perceived to be a drain on health care resources. This ignores their caring contribution to the health care sector. The purpose of this paper is to address this imbalance and highlight the role of older people as carers. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a unique data set supplied by a charity. It covers 1,985 caregivers, their characteristics, type and amount of care provided and the characteristics and needs of those cared-for. Binary and ordered logistic regression is used to examine determinates of the supply of care. Fairlie-Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions are used to disentangle the extent to which differences in the supply of care by age are due to observable endowment effects or coefficient effects. Nationally representative British Household Panel Survey data provide contextualization. Findings – Older caregivers are more intensive carers, caring for longer hours, providing more co-residential and personal care. They are therefore more likely to be in greater need of assistance. The decompositions show that their more intensive caring contribution is partly explained by the largely exogenous characteristics and needs of the people they care for. Research limitations/implications – The data are regional and constrained by the supplier's design. Social implications – Older carers make a significant contribution to health care provision. Their allocation of time to caregiving is not a free choice, it is constrained by the needs of those cared-for. Originality/value – If the burden of care and caring contribution are measured by hours supplied and provision of intimate personal care, then a case is made that older carers experience the greatest burden and contribute the most to the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between age and training in the 15 European Union countries (EU-15) that were member states prior to the 2004 enlargement. The analysis is carried out using European Union Labour Force Survey data. We report cross-country comparisons of the training undertaken by older people (aged 50–64) and younger people (aged 20–49). We extend previous research by adding an analysis of the training undertaken by non-workers as well as that of workers. We also consider whether training is work-related, whether it is undertaken during normal work-hours and the time spent in training. Our results show that across the EU-15 not only are older people less likely to participate in training in general but, more importantly, they are less likely to participate in work-related training. Our evidence suggests that there is considerable scope for raising the training rates of older people and particularly older people who are out of work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]